02-10-2009, 09:42 PM
There is a difference between plagiarism and fabrication, the sins of which Jayson Blair was guilty, and a "fair and balanced" network news operation passing off a political party press release as its own research.
Also, neither Jayson Blair nor the New York Times "got away with it." Blair resigned before he could get fired and is now working as an advocate for the mentally ill (wikipedia). Howell Raines, the executive editor of the Times, was forced to resign. The national editor resigned. The Times took a huge hit to its reputation, which it worked hard to recover by putting in new safeguards in the reporting and editing chain.
Also, neither Jayson Blair nor the New York Times "got away with it." Blair resigned before he could get fired and is now working as an advocate for the mentally ill (wikipedia). Howell Raines, the executive editor of the Times, was forced to resign. The national editor resigned. The Times took a huge hit to its reputation, which it worked hard to recover by putting in new safeguards in the reporting and editing chain.