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Thu 15 May, 2003 04:42 am
Quote:Times reporter's saga is hauntingly familiar
May 15, 2003
BY MARK BROWN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
...During the nearly 21 years that I have worked at this newspaper, there have been three reporters on staff, to my knowledge, with reputations among their colleagues for making stuff up...
...The special ability of two of the reporters to deliver scoops caused editors to overlook questions about whether some of their reporting was driven by an agenda other than the truthful reporting of the facts...
...According to the newspaper's account, Blair was adept at office politics, befriending top bosses. His ability to come through with big stories wowed those top bosses, who overlooked the red flags raised by those lower on the chain of command. After a while, the underlings stopped speaking up...
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FULL ARTICLE
This whole situation has application in any work arena. Hopefully, some of you will feel free to share stories.
Mapleleaf- I find this story very interesting, and enlightening. The first thought that came to mind was the concept of "The Blue Wall", where police would allegedly cover for one another's mistakes.
The reputation of a newspaper lies with its ability to convince people that they are disseminating the TRUTH. Any information to the contrary, would leave the newspaper vulnerable to the idea that if maybe one reporter is a fraud, what about the others? So the paper closes ranks, quietly fires the malefactor, and forgets about it.
Now for the Times mea maxima culpa. I am very curious as to whether their act of contrition would have been as visible had they not been caught with their pants down? If the story of the rogue reporter had not been made public, would the Times have 'fessed up, or handled it internally, never letting their customers and ad clients know about it?
Years ago, I worked for a county agency. Seems that one of the companies who had contracts with the county was having their workers send out political literature on county time. I reported it to my supervisor, who nearly fired me. Oh well, I was naive in those days!
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