It happened again.
Another journalist was fired after it was discovered that he’d made up a source.
In this case, the journalist in question is Rob Sgobbo, a young and not very experienced reporter for the New York Daily News and freelancer for the Village Voice who, according to news reports, was canned after an editor discovered he’d fabricated sources and lied about his reporting.
Sgobbo may have been young, but he had to know what he was doing was wrong. He’d recently graduated from one of the best j-schools in the country, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he no doubt took a course in journalism ethics to get his degree.
This freelancer had everything going for him – great training, work at prestigious publications.
Why blow it by faking a source?
I know nothing about the particulars of the situation beyond what I’ve read. But I have my suspicions. They’re the same hunches I have every time I hear about a reporter who’s played fast and loose with the truth.
Here’s why I think journalists cheat:
1. Deadlines. They’re a relentless fact of life if you’re in the news business. But there are ways to deal with them.
2. Stress. Caused by deadlines.
3. Needing to find sources that fit a very specific description. I’m as guilty as the next editor of asking the writers I work with to find people, places or companies that exemplify the issue or trend they’re writing about. Is that hard? Yes. Is it impossible? No. It can take time. In fact, in some cases finding the right source can take the majority of the time and effort that goes into a story, especially if you’re searching for a specific type of person, or the source is reluctant to talk on the record but without whom there is no story.
4. Unreal expectations. Editors can have unrealistic expectations for what a writer can accomplish with limited resources in a given period of time, especially if a writer doesn’t say anything to set them straight. Writers can have equally unrealistic expectations about what they’re capable of producing given their experience, knowledge of the subject and time.
5. Culture of cheating. If high school and college students are OK with texting test answers to each other from cell phones stuffed inside their pants pockets or buy their ADHD friends’ Adderall to stay up all night studying for tests, it’s pretty easy to see how that could lead to a less-than-honest approach to reporting a story.
6. Laziness. We’re in a tough business that demands discipline and putting in the time. Making stuff up is the lazy man’s (or woman’s) way out.
7. Ego. Marry a little early success with career aspirations and superior intelligence, and some people think norms and standards don’t apply to them, or that they won’t get caught.
8. Money. It no secret freelance rates haven’t budged in years – decades even – and in the case of writing for the web have even dropped, especially since content factories such as Demand Media and Associated Content have entered the picture. Freelance writers try to make up for falling rates by taking on more work. Even if you’re maxed out, it’s tough to say no to assignments when you know you’ve got bills to pay. But there’s only so much productivity you can squeeze out of yourself, and I say this as someone who’s spent the last year working a lot of those 12-hour days and 60-hour weeks.
What are your thoughts on why writers cheat?
These are all contributing factors to why this happens more often than we’d like to believe. But it’s not the reason it happens. The reason it happens is because the person believes they can get away with it. (Which unfortunately is often true too.) Sure we live in a culture that rewards cheaters all the time and freelance journalism is one of the most stressful fields you can work in. But in the end, the person does it because they think they have a shot of never being found out.
Agreed, that’s the mind set I was alluding to in the “culture of cheating” section.
Michelle
I’m glad you tackled this issue, Michelle! I’m baffled not by why he did it, but how he thought he’d get away with it. Sure, cocky and/or time-strapped journalists could make things up in the pre-Google era, but now it’s unbelievably easy for someone to Google the name of a source and question the validity if nothing comes up. Not only that but the organizations mentioned probably had Google Alerts, which is how they discovered the issue so quickly.
And then, of course, there’s the issue of public ridicule, which is so much worse now that bloggers can bash him and people can share the story via Twitter, Facebook, forums, etc. Unless he wants to pen a James Frey-type novel/memoir, I doubt he has much of a future in writing. And it’s a shame, because he seemed like a talented writer who cared about tackling important issues. (I don’t doubt that the “Tamicka Bourges” of the world exist, and I bet he could have found someone to share a similar story had he dug a little deeper.)
It does make you wonder whether it was an act of desperation or a momentary brain freeze – although what he did was so elaborate it doesn’t sound like some last-minute thing.
On the reputation thing, I agree that after these kind of instances, your chances of continuing in journalism are next to nothing. According to Wikipedia (I know, not 100 percent accurate), Jason Blair, the New York Times reporter who got fired for plagiarism and making stuff up, is now working as a life coach in the mental health field.
Michelle
Michelle, this is a great post. I’ve had to write a few parenting articles lately where I only use the first name of the source, and not their city, because they don’t want to cause embarassment for their children at school if they’re telling me about a sensitive issue. Even then, I feel funny because I wonder if people will think I made it up. I didn’t, I just can’t use all the info… I need to protect the whole family. In any event, I think people cheat because they’re either wired that way to be unethical (did they cheat in school, too?) AND the media culture being 24/7 with internet, CNN & Fox and the resulting RAMPANT competition. Eveyone has to have the “best” story when the consumer has too many choices!
Keep up the good work, I have your blog listed on my blogroll.
You bring up some interesting points. In instances where you’re using a source but not identifying them by name, or not by their entire name, it’s wise to include some kind of explanation of why you’re protecting their identity in the story. When I run into those situations, I work out with the editor in advance what’s acceptable and how we’ll phrase that.
Also, in the online age, it’s easy to take quotes from comments people have left on message boards or social networks and use them in a story without indicating where you got them, or follow up with the commenter. I have used comments left on message boards in stories before without asking for permission, if it was a quote that expressed a common sentiment and nothing too personal. But I’ve always labeled them as such. In other cases I’ve tracked down commenters to ask their permission and to get additional quotes – that way there’s no wondering whether they’re real or not.
Michelle
Some of the comments on Rob Sgobbo are cruel, we all make mistakes, and if you knew him as a person, he happens to be the kindess nicest young men you ever want to meet. Don’t judge a person by one mistake. I’m sure many of us are guilty of making mistakes in there life time.
I don’t know Sgobbo so I can’t say how nice or not nice he is. But the fact remains that his mistakes were big enough to get him fired. I used the incident not to criticize him, but as a jumping off point to discuss the many reasons why writers, and freelancers in particular, cheat, so that others won’t repeat his mistakes.
Michelle
The fact is, Rob Sgobbo is 25 and has only been working as a professional journalist for 4 months and his first paid gig being at one of the toughest papers in the nation. Just a little over a year ago he was working tirelessly as a special education teacher in the South Bronx through Teach for America. If he was ‘lazy’ or ‘unethical’ as your blog post and some of your commenters suggest, he would have not chosen to be a teacher in a NY public school nor a journalist whose emphasis was education.
I can not tell you why he did this. What I can tell you is how sad that someone whose history paints nothing but a picture of a talented young man with a passion for education reform has now been forever tarnished by a list of defaming search links all because of one mistake. Links that lead to sites like yours, who are adept at placing his name in urls and in their meta tags in order to capitalize on a young man’s mistake as their readers play judge and jury.
As the other commenter noted above, we all make mistakes, just most of us do not have them splashed across the web.
Thank you for your obviously heart-felt comments. I agree that it is sad. But I’d say it’s too soon to say whether he will be forever tarnished, as he is, as you point out, only 25. He has years ahead of himself in whatever he decides to do next, to rectify that. And while I agree with you that people makes mistakes all the time, it’s also true that a number of those people and their mistakes get splashed across the web, and newspapers, radio programs, TV news, magazines, etc., every day.
Have y’all simply considered that he is pathological. This had NOTHING to do with pressure or deadlines or being underpaid. He was well paid as a regular freelancer — he worked five days a week at the daily news.
the problem is not that a particular reporter lied it is that the MEDIA will not print a point that does not come from an authorized source. And someone that only gives half the story is more than likely lieing just as much as a reporter that makes up sources even if the news item has no “lie” as such in the story
What’s an authorized source? I’m the “media” and no editor – or corporate PR person for that matter – tells me who I can and can’t talk to or who I have to interview. And yes, sources do tell their side of the story. So it’s up to reporters to talk to multiple sources so all sides are represented. It’s hard to understand why you think a source “is more likely lieing” – that’s a pretty cynical view, not just of journalism, but of humanity.
Michelle Rafter