Everyday Ethics

Dear Bill Keller,

Your defense of the total news blackout surrounding the kidnapping of David Rohde has made the job of every free journalist in the world much harder. In doing so, you have put your loyalties to a few in front of the larger journalistic principle of truth telling.

You have indicated that when a life is in danger, we should avoid reporting the truth until that life is secure. In taking this position, you've created a standard that we journalists can't possibly uphold.

By telling the story of Rohde's escape, we've already violated it, compromising the life of the driver who was left behind. The driver's life may be in even more danger now from those same kidnappers. If we were to uphold your standard, we would continue the news blackout until the driver, too, is safe.

You've heard the phrase, "It's not news, it's Fark." Drew Curtis' social media site is meant to sum up all that's wrong in the world of online journalism, where weird, disgusting and ridiculous stories get more attention (and theoretically generate more revenue) than the most important stories of the day. It's also one-stop shopping for the rather large crowd of juvenile smart-alecs who prefer sex jokes to real dialogue about significant events of the day.

Except when it's not. Ever since its inception, Fark has had the tendency to morph into a serious site, where smart people exchange information and ideas. The Fark crowd still makes plenty of sex jokes (and bodily function references, as well as other behavior befitting high school boys) even while they're engaged in the most serious of topics.

The recent civil upheaval in Iran is no exception. While one Fark user, Tatsuma, posted a long, involved, clear explanation of all the oppressive forces in Iran, another user, RoxstarRyan asked in the same thread, "Can they finally show their Boobies?" It's the frat house meets the debate club. ...

Behind every writer is an army of friends, family members, editors and colleagues. They are the unofficial researchers, the invisible test market for new ideas and arguments, the "thought farmers," who help grow the writer's work.

I believe Maureen Dowd's explanation that she inadvertently plagiarized Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points Memo post in her Sunday column. What Dowd says she did -- take what she thought were her friend's words and make them her own -- is understandable. Yet, it is inexcusable.

What Dowd didn't know was that her friend was posturing, presenting Marshall's argument as if it were an original thought. So when Dowd lifted what she thought were her friend's words, she was actually re-stealing something. But because this is Dowd, the high liberal priestess of biting political criticism, the woman who excoriated Joe Biden for plagiarism, her crime is further stained by an air of hypocrisy.

Thus, she is busted and will be virtually eviscerated by her enemies. And it was all so avoidable.