Module Name and Code: Business Ethics and Governance BM061-3.

5-2-BEG
Assignment Title: case A (Jayson Blair)
Assignment Description: Individual Assignment
Intake Number: UC2F1310HRM
Hand out date: 19/12/2013
Hand in date: 29/1/2014
Lecturers Name: FARAHIDA BINTI ABDUL JAAFAR
Work Count: 2,313

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Case A.......................................................................................................................... 3
Background of the case.................................................................................................. 3
What is the ethical dilemma in the case?............................................................................. 4
The affected stakeholders and what it led............................................................................4
Answer for question 1....................................................................................................... 5
Answer for question 2....................................................................................................... 5
Answer for question 3....................................................................................................... 6
Answer for question 4....................................................................................................... 6
Answer for question 5....................................................................................................... 7
Answer for question 6....................................................................................................... 7
Recommendation............................................................................................................. 8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 8
References..................................................................................................................... 9

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Case A
Background of the case
Jayson Blair a former reporter who was known for reporting wrong news and editing other
reporters work, it all started in 1997 when he was a student journalist in university of Maryland,
he published a fake report in the diamondback newspaper about a guy who died due to overdose
of cocaine when actually he died because of a heart disease, later on it was an award winning
story, due to his talent in faking and editing news in 1998 he was offered an internship at the
New York Times industry, which he postponed it in order to continue with some studies in which
he never did cause he didnt graduated from Maryland university, and in 1999 he went back to
them and was hired as a full-time staff writer after his internship there. (Folkenflik, 2004).
And since he joined he covered fake stories about sniper attacks in Washington, D, C area, and
war in Iraq and many more for almost 4 years at the New York Times, he used some techniques
like coping directly from other newspapers, and using photographic evidence of events to write
stories as if himself had been there interviewing the person while he is on his disk sitting there,
which brought him into question how he can cover a story without going there. (The New York
Times, 2003).
Until on 18 April 2003, when the San Antonio Express-News published a story about a missing
solider, on 28 April 2003 Jayson Blair received a call saying that he had written the same story,
which led to the discovery of widespread issues with his work. And found also other evidence of
fabrication like the story of For One Pastor, the War Hits Home on 7 April 2003, alongside In
Military Wards, Questions and Fears from the Wounded on 19 April 2003. (Rieder, 2003) .
And on May 2003, the journalists from the New York Times made an investigation in which they
found out that he is been doing plagiarism and pulling fabricated quotes and details from other
publications, after the investigation was heated Jayson Blair resigned in May 2003 from his
position at the New York Times making an earthquake to the journalism world by reporting over
600 fabricated articles and himself as a hated man by everyone and the industry.

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What is the ethical dilemma in the case?

The ethical dilemma in the case of Jayson Blair is that when the journalists found out about
every single story he ever made and every article he published were just lies and lies, and he
provided anonymous sources, he knew that publishing fake news and editing them is unethical
and wrong thing to do, yet hes still goes for it, which lead of making himself as a straight
forward hypocrite, also led him to be a the center of one of the signature journalism scandals of
the century.
He used to copy and take other peoples work and keep the credit to himself rather than telling
the truth, especially the story of copying the San-Antonio Express news story about a missing
solider in USA, Texas.
And also when the human resources department hired Jayson Blair, they didnt check or even
bothered to verify his certification, they didnt provide him with training or anything, and they
werent actively checking the reporter work for plagiarism, and he was allowed to work, and was
promoted as a business writer for the papers Metropolitan, but then due to the high numbers of
errors in his reporting he was moved to the sports desk ignoring or missing warning signs from
his editors and the problems that he did. (bailey, 2013).

The affected stakeholders and what it led

The scandal that Jayson Blair made resulted in resigning Howell Rains the executive editor of
the paper and Gerald Boyd the managing editor in June 2003, also influencing other journalists
to do the same, which also led to diminish the people trust about the New York Times newspaper,
affecting and poising the publics perception of the newspaper trade, giving the industry with a
very bad reputation which can lead to making it with no profit, out of the competition and
probably shutting down.(spj, 2014).

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Answer for question 1

In terms of personal ethics, it plays a unique role in defining an individual character, its
important in creating and building a social statue in the society; it includes honesty, truthfulness,
politeness and respect for peoples emotions. But the actions that Jayson Blair has done made his
social status as a liar, he didnt even give the credit to the quotes that he stole and fabricated them
by the way, fake and worst of all a hypocrite.
In terms of professional ethics, it relates about the values that influence the work atmosphere, it
includes integrity, loyalty, accountability and respect the code of conduct of the organization.
And according to Blairs actions he disobeyed the rules of the company and he betrayed the
company by giving wrong, fake and lazy work, making him as a traitor, unethical reporter
whereby he broke the code of conduct of the New York Times and a back stabber.

Answer for question 2

Due to the amount of errors and plagiarism in most of Blairs articles and stories, the steps that
need to be taken to fix his attitude is to check and make sure that every article is true and real and
free from plagiarism and spelling errors, give him a lot of training programs and also ensure that
the story is covered and revised at least two or three times before publishing it and they should
write the details such as place, time and etc. and reference the quotes, and also according to
(couric, 2004), he mentioned that he was under alcohol and drugs when he was doing some of
his articles, thats something really bad especially for a journalist, so the New York Times
shouldve made a medical checkup twice or three times every month for example to ensure that
he is thinking straight whereby he provides the real and exact information without errors and also
ensure that he is in a good health because the company have to make sure that their employees
are working in a healthy way because thats the ethical sense that the company should do and
follow which is taking care of their employees. And they shouldnt have promoted him to
another position when he was making errors in his articles; they shouldve given him a training
program to fix those mistakes and make him better than before.

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Answer for question 3

Yes, because when the journalists provide or publish an article in a newspaper it has to be true
and accurate because they are the ones who are telling and providing information to the people
on what is going on in the world giving them updates and facts, and if they are not telling the
truth or not doing what they are supposed to do then it will be a crises and will affect the people
whereby they will be confused, outdated and with no knowledge in terms of policy, economic,
sports or science and technology.
While on the other hand, when businessmen lie or steal anything it will only affect the company,
because businessmen are focused more on making and bringing profit to the company, making
deals or buying and selling products, and if they are not doing their job with an ethical manner,
of course the company will lose their profit and margin which may lead to shutting down the
company and affecting only the customers that deals with the company but other people wont
get affected, and it will certainly lead to minimizing the production therefore losing profit and
customers and making the company in the stage of declining.

Answer for question 4

There is a little comparison between the two situations, because the fact that is in in Blairs
situation it clearly had shown that he used to lie about covering and editing some of his stories
giving fake details and information and he selected details from photographs to create the
impression that he had been somewhere or interviewed someone, when actually he had not, and
it turns out that he was just sitting on his disk reporting and making things up.(Glover, 2009).
And when we talk about Pasadenas situation of hiring reporters that they know that they will be
at a far distance of the story that they will be covering, they are saying that they will use modern
technologies such as the webcam, e-mail. Phone call and etc. to show prove that there is an
interview that had been recorded and show it to the editors to ensure the story has been covered.
(The Blade, 2007) .
The only comparison between the two situations is that both of the industries dont send their
reporters to the area of the incident.

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Answer for question 5

Yes, its a good idea from Pasadena to disclose the reporters whereby they show the reporters
name when they report a story, so that they make sure that the information that is provided to the
news is true, and make the story more real and exciting to read and know more about it, not to be
shown as fake and boring, because when the name is there in the story the people will believe
that there is a reporter who went there and checked the area by himself and made sure that he
covered the area, also the industry to know which reporter is ethical and hardworking, and
because when the people see the reporters in an area that an accident or an occasion happened
they will see everything at the area and will believe the story. The reporters when they give an
exclusive coverage at the area, the people can clearly see and know where exactly the accident
happened at which state or which street and know if that area is safe or dangerous because there
is a clear prove that the information and facts that is provided from the reporter is true and real.

Answer for question 6

No, because when someone does a mistake that he regrets on doing, and then he learned from the
mistake that it is wrong and unethical to do, so he usually dont want their loved ones or others to
do the same, so what he will do is lecture, inform and guide the people that this is wrong and
unfair to others without receiving any payments and to make sure that they dont follow those
unethical steps that will certainly lead to make their reputation and social statues destroyed and
ruined, because if it is ethical to make money out of the unethical behavior then everyone will do
a mistake and lecture everyone that this is wrong and unethical and then they will receive a
payment for that. But in some situations it is ethical to make money out of unethical behavior
only if that money or profit goes to a good cause or donate it to a charity.
And after the resigning, Jayson was diagnosed with bipolar disease, which he
made it in a positive way, whereby he is lecturing the people with the
disease to chase their dreams and never give up. Jayson was a certified life
coach because of his ethical participations, whereby he was a member of the
Regional recovery workgroup that is focused on improving the mental health
services and he helped to sponsor mental health related educational
programs, and also he went to other universities of journalism to speak and
discuss about the mental health related issues.(goosecreelconsulting, 2010).
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Recommendation
if it wasnt for the HR department and the editors of the New York Times none of those
fabricated quotes or fake coverage of stories and etc. wouldve happen, because when Jayson
came to them they didnt check his certification or verifying anything they just allowed him to
work there as if they thought that he is going to be a loyal reporter, and also Blair wasnt around
at the areas of the events but he inform to his editors that he is chasing stories.
So The New York Times shouldve checked him before hiring him in terms of his history, health
issues or at least his certification, because it turned out that his history and achievements were
just a lie as well as his certification, and it turned out that he has bipolar disorder which causes
change in mood and energy levels, and also they should have a checkup habit to ensure that they
choose the wright and ethical reporter. And if the reporters keep on disobeying the laws of
journalism they should be fired on the spot and never work again as a reporter at any industry.
Conclusion
Over all, ethics is something valuable in life, it is important to understand it because it guides to
do what is right and know what is wrong, and if there is no ethics all of the peoples action would
be just random and aimless, which will mostly lead to corruption and destroying the community.
Ethics builds a public image in terms of getting respect and a reputation. And especially in
business, ethical behavior can attract the customers, employees and investors, and that can lead
to boosting the sales and profit, reduce labor turnover and keep the companys share price high
and stable.
And relating to the case, if Blair had the ethical behavior of a real and honest reporter, he
wouldve been a great reporter or even the best at the New York Times, and made lots of
achievements or rewards, due to the collaboration and real effort that he put to give an amazing
and an exciting story to the world. And as I concluded after all of the mistakes and lies Jayson
Blair understood the meaning of ethics.

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References
bailey, j., 2013. ithenticate. [Online]
Available at: http://www.ithenticate.com/plagiarism-detection-blog/bid/93660/10-Years-AfterJayson-Blair-Struggles-with-Plagiarism-Remain
[Accessed 27th jan 2014].
couric, k., 2004. A question of trust [Interview] (17 march 2004).
Folkenflik, D., 2004. baltimoresun. [Online]
Available at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/bal-as.blair23,0,1189349.story
[Accessed 27 jan 2014].
Glover, k. D., 2009. aim. [Online]
Available at: http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-blair-ethics-project/
[Accessed 27 jan 2014].
goosecreelconsulting, 2010. goosecreekconsulting. [Online]
Available at: http://goosecreekconsulting.com/blair-jayson.php
[Accessed 28 jan 2014].
Pbs.org. 2014. Online NewsHour | Credibility in Question | Jayson Blair: A Case Study of What
Went Wrong at The New York Times. [online] Available at:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/media_ethics/casestudy_blair.php [Accessed: 29 Jan 2014].
Rieder, R., 2003. ajrarchive. [Online]
Available at: http://ajrarchive.org/article.asp?id=3019
[Accessed 27 jan 2014].
spj, 2014. spj. [Online]
Available at: http://www.spj.org/ecs13.asp
[Accessed 27 jan 2014].
The Blade, 2007. The Blade. [Online]
Available at: http://www.toledoblade.com/Opinion/2007/05/20/Outsourcing-news-What-a-cheapidea.html
[Accessed 27th Jan 2014].
The New York Times, 2003. nytimes. [Online]
Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/national/11PAPE.html?
ex=1367985600&en=d6f511319c259463&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
[Accessed 27 jan 2014].

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