1

Name: Steliana Stoyanova

Course: Media Law and Ethics
Professor: Lynnette Leonard
The Original Case Assignment Paper
Jared Keller accused in plagiarism
It is not easy to be journalist or work for the media. Every professional should be aware of
the laws and ethics and follow them strictly in order to be successful in their field. There are a lot
of journalists who violated the media code of ethics. Plagiarism is one of the biggest problems
among violation of the rules.
Famous cases related to this issue involve individuals, such as Jayson Blair, who was
working for New York Times and who was caught of plagiarism in the 1970s. Plagiarism, how to
handle it, and what could be the consequences of it, will be my main purpose and concern, as I
will be writing this paper. Firstly, I will give a full description of the case, and later I will move
forward to the concepts, which I relate it to.
More recent case that New York Times reported recently about plagiarizing is related to a
news director Jared Keller who was working for Mic. The company was founded in 2011 under
the name PolicyMic and it is a news outlet for readers under thirty-five.1 They employed Mr.
Keller in April 2014, first as Mic's director of programming, and later the same year the company
promoted him to news director. 2Jared Keller was considered an employee with excellent

1 Ben Sisario, Mic News Director Is Fired After Plagiarism Accusations, New York Times Feb.

12, 2015.

experience since he previously worked for big companies such as Bloomberg and The Atlantic.
3

In the beginning of February 2015, the news director was caught of some 20 examples of

uncited work and he was accused of plagiarism and fired a day after the full investigation was
done.1 Mics editor, Mr. Horowitz stated that the line was crossed and he further added,
Plagiarism is unacceptable in any form and our editorial policies make that very clear.4 That is
why the company took an immediate action and fired Mr. Keller. Jared Keller was ashamed of
his action and soon after he was fired he shared a statement on his Twitter apologizing for what
he did I want to apologize to my colleagues, friends, family and every hard-working journalist
out there. Theres no excuse for my sloppiness.5 He refused any further comments.1
This is not the first employee of Mic Company, who is caught in plagiarism. Chris Miles was
accused of the same violation, in July 2014.6 He stole material from CBS News and Forbes,

2John Trotter, Plagiarist of the Day: Mic News Director Jared Keller, GTKTK (blog), February

11, 2015 (2:40 p.m.)http://tktk.gawker.com/plagiarist-of-the-day-mic-news-director-jared-keller1684959192

3 Ibid.
4 Sisario, Mic News Director.
5 Ibid.
6 Hadas Gold, Mic investigating plagiarism charge, Politico (blog), February 11, 2015 (4:36

p.m.)
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/02/mic-investigating-plagiarism-charge-202467.html

without giving attribution to them.7 Although after the discovery Mic announced about
plagiarism detection software that they placed in order to prevent this to happen again, they
could not stop their next employee Jared Keller. No matter the security efforts of Mic, Keller
stole material from The Atlantic without any attribution, and lifted text from sources without
setting it in quotation marks, or without noting anywhere on the page that the material was not
his own. In total, Jared Keller violations include 20 passages from eight different news sources. 2
This case of plagiarism shows that amount of experience do not matter when the journalist
choose not to be professionally responsible for his job.
Plagiarism is tightly related to the ethical concepts authenticity, loyalty, and social
responsibility of the press. Jared Keller, and many others caught in plagiarism, violated all of
them, refusing to be devoted to his audience and even his employer. The truth, accuracy, and the
Potter Box are the perspectives, which need to be acknowledged from professional journalists, so
that they fully understand the ethical values of the media and how to follow them.
Authenticity is an ethical term in the Media laws related to the truth and accuracy. Words that
describe this ethical term are real, not copied, true, and accurate.8 To get a clearer idea of the
meaning of authenticity, its closest synonym is originality. Honesty and openness are another
adjectives that describe the ethical term. Authenticity is tightly related to sincerity and honest
disclosure of information. The disclosure is essential in order to establish relationship with both,
your audience. The message of authenticity is that not only important to do the right thing, but
to do it with the right attitude.9

7 Ibid.
8 Richard Weiner, Websters new world dictionary of media and communications, (New York: Macmillan
Company, 1996), 39.

It is essential for journalists to be authentic, thus, accurate and original with their articles,
without coping and stealing material with no additional attribution of the sources. This is not the
case with Jared Keller. He not only tried to fool the audience by copying material as if it is his
original information, but he also showed dishonesty to his employer or the company that hired
him. After he did it couple of times and he was not caught, probably Keller assumed that he can
continue hide this violation and repeat it over and over again. In other words he was not truly
open about his actions. In order to go there and be a responsible journalist, one needs to learn to
be sincere and disclose original information to the audience. If he fails to do that, he is not loyal
anymore neither to his employer, nor to his readers. To do it with the right attitude emphasizes
again the respect and professional concern that a journalist show to the company which
employed him, as well as how much he is devoted to his audience.
Loyalty in journalism and mass media is a blurry term with no defined boundaries. The
definition of the word loyalty means devotion. Journalists are highly tied to loyalty and they are
expected to show devotion and fidelity to their audience and employers.
Joshua Royce, who was an American theologian, defined loyalty as a social act 9of a
thoroughgoing devotion of a person to a cause.10 His statement implies that Royce will be
critical to journalists who get a story at all costs. Ralph Potter developed a decision-making
model that could help to make an ethical choice. His model is based on four steps that include
understanding morally the relevant facts, outlining the values, applying philosophical principles,
and articulating loyalty. All four parts could be of a great benefit for a journalist to make an
ethical decision. The Potter Box investigates our values and if the four steps are achieved, than
9 Philip Patterson and Lee Wilkins, Media Ethics: Issues and Cases (Singapore 2014, 8th edition), 82-83
10 Joshua Royce, The Philosophy of Loyalty, (1908)

we face the question of our ultimate loyalties.11 Who is that we have to be loyal to? Or do we
accept and believe in loyalty at all?
The way how loyalty is related to the case with Jared Keller, is that he is not fair to himself,
first, then to his employer, and last but not least, to his audience. It is important to say that it is
difficult to set boundaries about loyalty and not everyone succeeds in that. What Keller did, is
that he lied once by not giving proper attribution, and then he continued lying until he got
caught. I am not saying that if he lied only once his action should be excused, but at least from
there he can set up narrower limits for himself and be more loyal. This was not the case, and by
his actions, Keller has proven that he was not devoted completely to his work and he had chosen
the option to get a story at all costs12 (which involves him plagiarizing). By agreeing to be an
employee in Mic, Keller signed the silenced professional contract to keep promises, operate
within the framework of the law and extend due process to all persons.13 He violates this, as he
violates the loyalty arising from shared humanity as well to build a fair and compassionate
environment that promotes the common good.14 By plagiarizing numerous times, Keller ignores
loyalty and as a result he loses his job.
Social responsibility theory of the press was a project funded by Henry Luce, and it was
established in the 1940s by a group of scholars. 9According to the theory, there are couple of
functions that a journalist should follow. One of them is a truthful, comprehensive, and
11 Clifford Christians and Mark Fackler, Media Ethics: cases and moral reasoning (New York:
Longman, 1998), 19.
12 Ibid. 82-83
13 Ibid. 85
14 Ibid.

intelligent account of the days events.9 Social responsibility theory of the press involves also the
ethical question to follow your duties and responsibilities regarding the content that you are
presenting. This includes stating the sources that you are using and giving credit to their original
authors.
Plagiarism automatically excludes this social responsibility towards your audience. If you are
journalist and you steal material, use it without citing it, you do not obey on the ethic rules for
the social responsibility theory of the press. We see this with the case of Jared Keller, who
obviously is not enough professionally behaved and does not show any social responsibility
towards his audience and the company he works for.
In order to make a judgment about Jared Kellers actions, I used two ethical perspectives that
helped me to be objective and concise. The first one is the Potter Box, created by Ralph Potter. It
is a decision-making model that in four steps helps you make an ethical decision as well as an
ethical judgment about a case. Based on these four parts facts, values, principles, and loyalty
about which I explained earlier, I think that Jared Kellers action to steal information and not cite
the sources is completely unethical both to his employer, and to the audience. The relevant fact
that makes me judge the situation in this way, is that a journalist who is hired from a company
and given the trust as a professional should act as such. This includes being responsible and
honest, which we see it is certainly not the case of Mr. Keller. The values are accuracy and
fairness that are obviously missing. Finally the principles to be sincere and trustworthy are not
met, which automatically denies the presence of loyalty in Jared Kellers actions.
The second ethical perspective, which made me think that the acting partys actions are
unethical, is the credibility. To be credible means to be believable and worthy of trust.15 If you
15 Louis Alvin Day, Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and Controversies (Wadsworth, 2003),
10..

are a journalist you have to establish credibility in the eyes of your audience and your employers.
The truth in getting the news is as important as truth in reporting16 or writing. It is essential
for a journalist to be truthful about his work, including both reporting and writing. It is
completely unethical to plagiarize, thus steal someone elses words and pretend that they are
yours. Not giving a credit to the authors material is considered a crime in the media sphere and
lacks any credibility. It is one of the most unacceptable moves that a professional journalist can
make. That is why I consider Jared Kellers plagiarizing completely unethical.
This case is very useful and effective for teaching the ethical issues that I mentioned above.
It is tightly related to plagiarism and it narrows down the information but that can be a good
thing since students could specialize in this area. Applying the Potter Box and the truth as
ethical perspectives can be an interesting way to discuss this case and also to use the case in
order to understand better these two concepts in the media law. Jared Keller case of plagiarism
is a good tool to educate people more for values and ethical concepts, such as loyalty,
authenticity, and social responsibility of the press.
To conclude, plagiarism is unethical behavior, especially if you are a specialist in the field of
the media and journalism. There is no exceptional rule to excuse Jared Keller for the information
that he stole, and he does not obey and follow any ethical and social media laws. It is not only
that he is not loyal to his audience, his employer, and to himself as well, but also to the people
from who he borrowed material and did not give credits to.

16 Ibid. 21

Bibliography
Alvin, Louis. Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and Controversies. Thomson
Wadsworth, 2003.

Christians, Clifford, and Mark Fackler. Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning.
New York: Longman, 1998.
Gold, Hadas. Mic Investigation Plagiarism Charge (blog). Entry posted February 11, 2015.
Accessed April 7, 2015. http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/02/
mic-investigating-plagiarism-charge-202467.html.
Patterson, Philip and Lee Wilkins. Media Ethics: Issues & Cases. Singapore: 2014.
Sisario Ben. Mic News Director Is Fired After Plagiarism Accusations. New York Times.
Feb. 12, 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/business/media/news-director-at-mic-is-fired-afterplagiarism-accusations.html?_r=1

Trotter, John. "Plagiarist of the Day: Mic News Director Jared Keller." GTKTK (blog).
Entry posted February 11, 2015. Accessed April 7, 2015. http://tktk.gawker.com/
plagiarist-of-the-day-mic-news-director-jared-keller-1684959192.

Weiner, Richard. Webster's new world dictionary of media and communications.

New York, U.S.: Macmillan Company, 1996.