Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
might be. It is up to you as reader, therefore, to evaluate each source
carefully to identify possible biases and how they might have af
fected the materials you read.
Of course, over time, each of us typically has come to trust in
formation from some sources. People come to trust specific newspa
pers, magazines, journals, individuals, organizations, and Web sites
as dependable sources of information. Although these sources gen
erally have a reputation of objectivity, even the most wellrespected
sources are not invariably free of bias. For example, over the years,
the
New York Times
and the
Washington Post
built excellent repu
tations for their objectivity. Many people have relied on informa
tion reported in these papers as being beyond question or reproach.
Thus, this reputation was a major issue in the scandal at the
New
York Times
, when a story reported plagiarism and a subsequent in
vestigation criticized procedures. (See the sidebar for some addi
tional details.) This incident tarnished the image that the
New York
Times
worked so hard to earn, and much subsequent effort went to
identifying underlying causes and restoring the public's faith in the
paper.
The Scandal at the
New York Times
On April 26, 2003, a story by
New York Times
reporter Jayson Blair contained portions
that were largely copied from an April 18, 2003, story that appeared in the
San
Antonio Express-News.
A subsequent internal investigation at the
New York Times
found fraud, plagiarism, and inaccuracies in 36 of Blair's 73 articles; Blair resigned on
May 1, 2003. On May 23, the
Times
created a review committee to examine newsroom
policies. After considerable criticism regarding procedures, two highlevel editors re
signed on June 5, 2003.
Beyond recognizing that bias is possible, even likely, you should
take time to consider various loyalties and possible conflicts of in
terest. In some cases, loyalties and conflicts of interest may seem
reasonably clear. For example, consider corporate Web pages main
tained by developers of filtering software (discussed in Chapter 14).
As you might expect, these Web sites highlight their effectiveness
and ease of use. As a contrast, consider Web sites that contain re
ports of filtering software, based on tests by outside reviewers. You
might expect that the descriptions from the filteringsoftware com
panies are more positive than the reports from outside reviewers
