Media Ethics in America

In the rush to get out news, to beat competition, to have a "scoop", media now often do something that is increasing almost daily: plagiarism. There are many other unethical forms in the media, of course, especially around election time when articles about or against a candidate may well mention life styles among other untrue or semi-true facts. At the turn of the century there was, with William Randolph Hearst at its vanguard, a whole system of newspapers called "yellow journalism" which printed half-truths, innuendos and outright lies against which some people simply did not have the will or the money to defend themselves. Hearst himself often boasted that it was he and his newspapers that brought on the Spanish-American War which freed Cuba and Puerto Rico and the Philippines from Spanish rule.

This past year, magazines and newspapers have written many reports about the plagiarism of Stephen Ambrose, a well-respected historian and teacher, who was found to have plagiarized entire sections of his best-selling book. The samne thing happened to the dean of a law school in California, whose book was found to have been plagiarized to a large extent. Both authors claimed that they properly cited (or somehow, the citations were edited out) their sources.

Finding good examples in the media today is not guess work. It happens. For example, the Harvard Business School Press has filed a copyright infringement suit against a Decatur, GA outfit, called Business Book Review. Harvard "alleges that BBE has lifted pages of work from 26 titles and included them in eight-page summaries that it sells as downloadable files....Promoting is one thing, plagiarizing is another...(Zeitchik 10) The head of the accused said he was totally surprised, since he says "much value has been added....to all parties involved.." (Zeitchik 10)