By Saswat Pattanayak

Jayson Blair is the latest disgrace. But the unparalleled publicity he is getting is beyond reason. And the breeding ground for such a claim to defame is incidentally my college.

What should not come as surprising is that we breed journalists to be truthful, and credible, instead of socially relevant and useful.

Hence with much stress on these unattainable traits as truthfulness (unattainable since nowhere does a single truth exist anyway) the first casualty is honesty. And of course if Blair and his types only understood that journalism has a mission to serve the society rather than their own interests as career professionals, things would be different. The social responsibility explains the conducts of people in a way that self-growth syndrome cannot.

Secondly, the schools expecting huge amount of money and commitment from students of course function as big business houses. And they instill a sense of arrogance (like Maryland says “Fear the Turtle&rdquo than a sense of duty. They lead the students to use education for a personal career rise using competitive yardsticks instead of using education as a utilitarian means to promote cooperative understandings.


Anyway, contextually speaking, Baltimore Sun has an extensive report on who created the genius!

Tags: Saswat, Media, Technology