What Are The Ethical Issues Of Jonah Lehrer

The field of journalism is a competitive and racy career, as it can sometimes be difficult to write articles that captivate an audience. It can be a challenge to find interesting topics and ideas, and also a challenge to find credible information. In the case of author and journalist Jonah Lehrer, it was a challenge to find new and refreshing concepts and to publish information that was purely credible. Lehrer’s first offense was reusing some of his works for a different publication. Whether or not plagiarizing your own work is ethical or not is seemly controversial. Another offense of Lehrer’s includes the fabrication of quotes from the renowned musician Bob Dylan in his best-selling novel Imagine (Ronson). He was exposed by journalist Michael
Their main point being that it is that author’s original work. A true journalism controversy, those who hold this to be ethical would also agree that the fabrication of quotes is not necessarily wrong if it is for the literary entertainment of others. Journalist Jonah Lehrer took the quotes of Bob Dylan and embellished them in his book Imagine. Lehrer saw this to be necessary at the time, for the sake of his book. But, once Michael Moynihan revealed this falsehood, his career took a turn for the worse. Many believe that Moynihan should not have exposed Lehrer, mainly for personal reasons. This public shaming had an effect on Lehrer’s career—his book Imagine was inevitably dropped by the company who published it. This exposure also led him to resign from his job post. This would ultimately have an effect on his family. Public shaming in general has an effect on the careers and families of those exposed, and it is believed that it should not happen for this reason
According to PlagiarismToday, “When it was discovered that he had reused words from his previous articles, the bulk of the online battle was drawn not to Lehrer himself, but to whether or not self-plagiarism even exists” (Bailey). In this instance, it is made apparent that this type of plagiarism is relatively new in the journalism field and people have different opinions on it. It is evident that Lehrer may have not been aware that this is unethical because there were no known guidelines or rules against it. In reference to the falsification of works, it can be understood as to why a writer would add or take out a few words in order to make a specific quote seem more interesting. Many authors are willing to go to extra lengths in order to make their books more intriguing for their readers. Jonah Lehrer, evidently, just got caught. It is also comprehensible as to why people would be against public shaming. All people are simply humans who have lives and families to take care