What's happened to ethics and honesty?

Celestine Sibley

I've been writing now for just shy of thirty (30) years so I was influenced by what I considered some of the best editors / authors / writers to come out of the south. Names like Reg Murphy, Lewis Grizzard, and Celestine Sibley (pictured at left). I've always done my best to follow their example and be as down-to-earth and honest in my writing as is humanly possible. For that reason, this story from today's New York Times was disconcerting to me:

Rise in number of retractions in scientific papers raises concerns

Simply put, what has happened to ethics and honesty among some writers? Please don't get me wrong, I don't mean to be holier-than-thou, because I've made errors in my writing too . . . but never an intentional misstatement of facts and never a factual error severe enough to warrant a full-blown retraction of what I wrote. I had what, at least one editor considered, a "bad habit" of double-checking and occasionally triple-checking my facts.  On more than one occasion, he and I locked horns because he changed my wording. (For some reason, I could never get him to grasp the concept that there's a legal difference between an incendiary fire and an arson fire and that they were terms that couldn't be used interchangeably. Of course this was also the man who thought nothing of going under yellow "Fire Line" tape to capture a picture he wanted.) Unfortunately it was actions such as his that lead to retractions like are discussed in the article above. I can only hope my unofficial mentors aren't spinning in their graves at what our beloved profession has become.

Until next time . . . 

I like to write (and read) . . .

If you take a look at my blog roll, you can tell I love to read not only what I write, but what others write as well. Some of the blogs I follow are written by the "somewhat famous" (such as newscasters and the like), but most are written by "Joe Blow" who, like me, has found a blog is easy way to speak your mind. I think, by and far, my favorite blogger is Don McClellan, a retired anchor/report for WSB television in Atlanta, Georgia. Although I've yet to have the pleasure to meet him in person, I already feel as if I know him from reading his blogs and talking back and forth in my responses to what he writes.

You might be wondering what the picture of a man working late at night has to do with my blogging. Simple . . . I've found that some of my best blogs (or ideas for an article) come in the early morning . . . usually around three or four o'clock in the morning. Mind you, I might not finish the blog - or article - at that early hour (as a matter of fact, I usually don't) but I will get up and at least get it in draft form. That way, I can come back to it later in the morning, and pick-up from the point where I stopped. It also affords me the opportunity to bounce the idea around in my head and improve upon it.

Until next time . . .