Throughout the whole Season 5 of The Wire, their were a lot of issues happening in the newsroom. One of the major issues at hand was fabrication. Stories were being made up and exaggerated, which is not newsworthy. That goes against journalism rules and the code of ethics.According to webster.com, the definition of fabrication is "to make up for the purpose of deception."
Their becomes great speculation that Scott Templeton, a young reporter for The Baltimore Sun, makes up his own stories. It seems that he does so to impress others and to have a higher position at The Sun. He is one to make up his stories for the Baltimore Sun. He began fabricating stories basically from the start. It all started in Episode 2, Unconfirmed Reports, with his beginning story consisting of a teenage boy in a wheelchair presenting no real name, only a so called nickname, no photo or anything. With no evidence he gets away with it and the faulty story is accepted by Executive Editor James Whiting. From then on Templeton made up stories and quotes throughout the season.
Templeton just makes stories up like it is the correct thing to do and like it is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so.
He also presented a story about a so called mother that died of a toxic reaction to blue crabs. The mother left four children in care of her sister. According to Templeton, as the sister raises the four children she collects money to pay for their education.
It is no secret to the staff that Templeton fabricates stories. David Simon clearly dislikes Templeton because of all of the fabricated stories and quotes he provides.
The whole happening of Templeton and his fabricated stories is similar to the Jayson Blair story. Blair, a young reporter as well, who resigned from the New York Times after he was caught fabricating and plagiarizing stories. Templeton and Blair both took part in the same act, fabrication.
Fabrication is a very serious issue in the newsroom. I feel that it goes against any rule for journalism and is far from ethical. Fabrication clearly does not make for a good story even if the made-up story is portrayed as real or even sounds nice. I feel like if you are going to make up stories then why become a journalist. It is not fair to the paper, staff or others that would love to be in the newsroom writing newsworthy stories. The obvious and correct thing to do is to fire anyone who is participating in fabrication. If it is done once then it is bound to happen again. Reporters are under a lot of pressure, having to deal with deadlines and all of the happening stories and events. Regardless of all of the present pressure, it is never acceptable to make up stories and quotes. Whether if the fabrication is based off of pressure of just to be noticed, appreciated, impressing others or raising standings it is not necessary and should never be done.
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