By Kristal Brent Zook on CJR, July 16
Perhaps Liane Membis, the Wall Street Journal intern fired recently for inventing quotes, started out with noble intentions. As Miss Black America-Connecticut last year, she spoke against high illiteracy rates among African American children and of wanting to represent black women “in a positive light.” We’d assume that Membis, a Yale graduate, brought these ideals to her internship at one of the nation’s most prominent dailie
So what happened? How did her high ideals come crashing down so horribly? As odd as it may seem, she may not have thought she was doing anything so terribly wrong. As the director of the MA Journalism Program at Hofstra University on Long Island (and a former adjunct at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism), Membis’s transgressions probably should surprise me, but they don’t. Many students these days are amazed—I mean, truly baffled—when confronted with their own unethical behavior.