 Tomesha Thompson |
SCHOOL: Alcorn State University MAJOR: Mass Communications-Print Journalism MENTOR: Dr. Michael Cheers EXPECTED GRADUATION DATE: May 2004 ORGANIZATIONS & HONORS:
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ABSTRACT
Newspaper Ethics in the Aftermath of the Janet Cooke Episode at The
Washington Post and the Jayson Blair Scandal at The New York
Times
| This research paper examines ethics in newspaper journalism following violations at The Washington Post and The New York Times. In 1980, Janet Cooke, a reporter at The Washington Post, confessed to fabricating a feature article about an eight year old boy addicted to heroin, which caused the newspaper to return the Pulitzer Prize awarded to Cooke for the article. During her 15-month employment at The Post there were no signs of any other discrepancies in any of her stories, but sections of her resume were later found to be false. In May 2003, New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, resigned after failing to produce news sources on a story he wrote about a missing Army mechanic in Iraq. It was noticeably similar to a story run in The San Antonio Express-News. Blair’s editors later discovered “problems” in 36 out of 73 stories during his four-year tenure. In conclusion, an analysis of changes in the ethics codes at The Washington Post, and The New York Times show that ethics codes were changed at The Washington Post and are currently being revised at The New York Times. |