As a member of the executive board and regional press officer, I firmly advise against having Mr. Jayson Blair as this year's keynote speaker. Although Mr. Blair has made mistakes in his past that any student of journalism can learn from, he has not proved that he himself has learned from. Judging by his website based on his newfound work as a motivational speaker, Mr. Blair seems to have placed the blame for his actions on a mental illness rather than an ethical mistake. Jane Pauley, a respected broadcast journalist, also suffers from bipolar affective disorder, and has not had the illness ever affect the accountability of her work. Additionally, no scientific links have been made between the disorder and the type misleading actions Blair committed. Therefore, his use of his illness for committing his unethical and journalistic faux pas is a scapegoat not to be admired or promoted in a teaching forum such as ours.
The perils of plagiarism, fabrication, and dishonesty would be a story better told by Blair's editors of the New York Times at the time of his falsified publications. Those editors would have a better examination of the case as to their mistakes in not catching his actions, as well as analyzing exactly where he and they went wrong. Even more so they could describe the changes their paper has made to prevent these occurrences in the future. Their futures still involve the world of journalism, where Blair's future does not anymore. He cannot tell how he has learned from his mistakes and improve upon his work if he is no longer in the field he is speaking about.
Although Blair did resign and make a pubic apology, he explained in that apology that he did not think his actions affected the credibility of journalists. To have a person who could first act so unethically as to falsify first hand accounts, people, quotes, and to directly plagiarize from other pieces, and then not take fully responsibility for those dishonest actions, would be a poor example for impressionable journalism students. Based on Blair's new endeavors he has moved on from his dishonorable past, but has not used his experiences to tell young journalists how to prevent finding themselves in such situations. He appears to have forgotten his actions rather than learning from them. Furthermore, to pay for Blair's expenses would imply that our organization sees him as a respectable keynote speaker, when he has done nothing to prove that position would be deserved. For these reason I firmly believe Jayson Blair's invitation to be keynote speaker should be reconsidered.
*Photo by news.softpedia.com
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