When Will They Ever Learn?

Where have all the journalists gone, long time passing?
Where have all the journalists gone, long time ago?
Where have all the journalists gone?
They've made up stories everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

In the wide wake left by Jayson Blair, Mary Mapes, Dan Rather, Memogate, and the Hurricane Katrina hysterical false reports, to name just a few, wouldn't you think that "journalists" would realize that they can't get away with faking their stories?

THEY CAN NO LONGER PRESENT THEIR IMAGININGS AS REALITY.
THEY CAN NO LONGER CREATE STORIES CITING NONEXISTENT PEOPLE.
THEY CAN NO LONGER CREATE STORIES BASED ON FAKE POLLS.

THEY CAN NO LONGER EDIT VIDEO TO MISREPRESENT REALITY TO CREATE STORIES.

When will these geniuses learn that they will get caught?

Nick Sylvester of the Village Voice is the most recent member of the press that I know of (though it's become such a common occurence, there may be more already) to go down in flames.


I feel uncomfortable citing the Associated Press for this, given its fabricationitis, but according to David B. Caruso:

The Village Voice suspended one of its editors after he admitted fabricating material for this week's cover story, a look at "The Secret Society of Pickup Artists."

The weekly alternative newspaper published an editor's note on its Web site Wednesday night announcing the suspension of senior associate editor Nick Sylvester.

In an article about the effect that Neil Strauss' book "The Game" has had on the singles scene, Sylvester closed with a description of a night in which he and three television writers from Los Angeles tested strategies for picking up women at a Manhattan bar.

"That scene," the Voice wrote, "never happened."

It attached a note from Sylvester, in which he said the account was "a composite of specific anecdotes" shared by two of the alleged participants. One of the people supposedly present, the comedy writer Steve Lookner, wasn't involved at all, Sylvester acknowledged.

"I deeply regret this misinformation, and I apologize to Lookner for his distress, which I certainly never intended," Sylvester wrote.

Of course, Sly regrets the "misinformation." It may cost him his job. Would he be regretting his lies if it didn't?

I doubt it.

Would any of the lying journalists regret their "misinformation" if they were able to successfully pass it off as truth?
Voice Managing Editor Doug Simmons said the paper was still reviewing the accuracy of the rest of the story and planned to publish a second statement in its next edition.

Simmons said Sylvester, who also wrote for the online music magazine Pitchfork, joined the Voice staff in 2005.

Pitchfork Editor-in-Chief Ryan Schreiber said Sylvester resigned Thursday after the magazine asked him to quit.

Pitchfork had the integrity to remove Sly from its staff. Good for them.

The Village Voice apparently is hesitating to give Senior Associate Editor Sly the boot. Big mistake.

I think that a news publication's credibility isn't everything; it's the only thing. Without that, it has no value in the non-fiction category.

I'm afraid when a publication excuses a lying reporter it reflects on that publication's ethical standards.

In that case, one bad apple DOES spoil the whole bunch.

Editors who are willing to allow writers to pass off lies as factual reporting are blurring the boundaries of reality. They are willing participants in the active creation of an entirely new breed of journalism -- Fake Truth.

Unless stories, like Sly's, include disclaimers that the works contain composite characters and complete fabrications, then they should be resoundingly and firmly condemned by all in the field of journalism and society in general.
_______________________________Here's a "must read, must heed" for journalists.

Reflecting on the lessons found in Groping for Ethics in Journalism by Ron F. Smith might give some of today's so-called truth-tellers pause before they choose to grope for falsehoods, and attach their names to their fiction while presenting it as fact.