Intellectual Property-Jayson Blair

Intellectual property is the product of individual creativeness that comes from the mind that is copyrighted, trademarked, patented or has legal property rights

Six years ago, 27 year old Jayson Blair, ex newspaper reporter is known for the “greatest newspaper scandal in history.” Jayson Blair was a reporter for The New York Times that plagiarized from other articles reported false statements and fabricated personal quotations from significant events that occurred from 1999 to 2003. Fabrications have been found in over 600 of Jayson Blair’s articles. Blair completely violated many journalism rules by stealing material from other newspapers, and using false pictures to create the sense that he was at the location reporting live. Many of his mistakes were seen but not taken into account that he had committed fraud. He has significantly damaged The New York Times’ 152 year old reputation of putting out reliable sources to inform the public.

Blair’s reporting has been nothing but scandals which have hurt the hearts of many people. One of the major stories he was caught in plagiarizing were the sniper attacks in suburban Washington which caused a great deal of controversy. The first article discussed the arrest of John Muhammad one suspects in the sniper shootings. Interviews showed the article has many errors and inaccuracies. US attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio and a senior FBI official denied details and specifics in Blair’s article. Instead of being questioned or double checking Blair’s source superior editors promoted Blair to leading the coverage for the sniper prosecution. Then once again in another article Robert Horan Jr. an attorney in Fairfax County, Va. had also denied information in one of Blair’s articles. Jayson was caught in many ways of how he used lies and deceit to write his articles. Many people have contested his work and proven the lies in his work. By using other intellectual property Blair has plagiarized many articles written for The New York Times.

I feel that what Jayson Blair has committed is morally wrong. Not only did he betray his peers and superiors but most importantly he betrayed the trust of the public audience. Blair’s unprofessionalism has severely damaged the reputation of The New York Times because he has written so many deceitful articles for over 4 years. It is ridiculous that he has been able to produce many articles without getting caught.  Although there were many suspicions to his work there were never any earlier investigations. Blair’s deceitfulness has proven that media is biased and that the media does not check their sources as thoroughly as they should.  Media and press are very easily to believe anything they hear and are always jumping to the slightest conclusions. Blair’s actions have shown how workings in the media can be false; he uses his lies to get ahead in journalism and continued doing so since it was helping him get promoted. Blair’s use of reporter’s journalistic work is an example of stealing intellectual property.

An issue in the engineering design field related to intellectual property is mostly notable in the industrial design industry. In industrial design many inventors come across similar ideas because of the demand for user friendly items. This is where intellectual property plays a role because with so many new and innovative products being developed it is hard to determine what designs have already been copyrighted or trademarked. I believe that a main reason for this is because many companies want to perfect their products before they put it out there, and many consumers are fearful of using products that have just been released to the market. Advertisements in mass media can portray different views on products but it is word of mouth that consumers trust. This is the reason why companies trademark their items so that their ideas don’t get stolen.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120157094

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/national/11PAPE.html?pagewanted=all

 



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