The New York Times and Jayson Blair (A) “All the News That’s Fit to Print”?

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The New York Times built its legacy around characteristics that did not represent the status quo nor did it follow the traditional steps in reporting news to the public. Instead of putting emphasis on reporting corruption, scandal, and extreme political views, it put importance in reporting the factual representation of events and limited both personal views and expressions (Smeraglinolo, Wehmer, & O’Rourke, 2007).

The New York Times set guidelines to ensure its readers were getting the accurate details of its reporting. O’Rourke (2010) states “Genuine moral standards transcend the interests of just one or a few people. They involve doing things for the greater good of society or people at large” (p.65). The New York Times was able to establish moral principles by putting limits on the rhetoric, which in turn built a customer base that expanded through several media source, such as periodical publications, radio and television broadcasting (Smeraglinolo et al., 2007).

The company’s integrity came in question when their star employee “Jayson Blair” was accused of plagiarism and the misappropriation of company funds. The unethical dealings led to his resignation and the resignation of The New York Times’ Executive Editor, Howell Raines, and Managing Editor, Gerald Boyd (Smeraglinolo et al., 2007).

Paine states “the superior person seeks to perfect the admirable qualities of others and does not seek to perfect their bad qualities” (as cited in O’Rourke, 2010, p.68). Both Raines and Boyd focused only on the good quality that Blair had to offer, but failed to look at his transgressions.

This ultimately led to other employees feeling the sense of betrayal, which brought apprehension in the way upper management...

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...010) states that “Managers must respond to these conflicts and to the tension that arises from them with cautions, sensitivity, and a sense of fairness to everyone concerned” (p.70). As presented above, the recommendations will ensure that each person who was directly impacted are addressed and have a clear understanding of the issues involving The New York Times. The recommendations will help in moving the company in the direction of restoring its public image.

Works Cited

O'Rourke, J. S. (2010). Management communication: A case-analysis approach (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Smeraglinolo, M., Wehmer, J., O’Rourke, J.S. (2007). The New York Times and Jayson Blair: All the news that’s fit to print? In J.S. O’Rourke (Ed.), The business communication casebook: A Notre Dame collection (2nd ed., p. 110-116). Mason, OH: South-western.

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