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Journalism

 

New Journal Release--Plagiary--Call for Papers

 

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Plagiarism and Fabrication at The New York Times, The USA Today, The Washington Post . . .

 

A number of recent books have detailed the shocking journalistic misdeeds at top newspapers in the US. After the Jayson Blair fiasco at the New York Times, heads rolled at the very top of the chain of command when investigations revealed that the problems went much deeper than just one journalist's infractions. Journalists caught in the act of plagiarizing generally blame deadline pressures, writer's block, inadvertent mistakes, everybody else who's doing it, and other such shabby excuses for their sub-par journalism.

 

And reporters and editors generally tend to "hush-hush" cases of language lifting, preferring to sweep the dirt under the carpet rather than to publicly air their dirty laundry. Unless you happen to be an unfortunate "golden boy" journalist such as Jack Kelley working for USA Today. This unlucky reporter's own colleagues, jealous of Kelley's rise to journalistic stardom, began keeping files on their unsuspecting co-worker and revealed a number of articles which had either been plagiarized from other sources or fabricated entirely. That was the end of Kelley's career with USA Today. And many other journalists' careers have been blighted by charges of plagiarism or other serious lapses in journalistic integrity.

 

Take, for example, the case of "Rathergate" or "Memogate" as it has been called, a reference during the 2004 US presidential campaign to the supposedly original memo detailing George W. Bush's delinquency in his National Guard duty. Internet bloggers were the ones to point out the superscript "th" which gave the document away as a forgery. Dan Rather resigned shortly after this story, not necessarily as a direct result, and the reputation of CBS as an unbiased news outlet was called into question. More recently, not being able to verify their sources, Newseek retracted an inflammatory story with at least a partial basis in truth which claimed the Quran had been flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay by U.S. prison guards. There was some evidence indicating possible "mishandling" of the Quran at Guantanamo, but no specific evidence to indicate that the book of Islam had actually been flushed.

 

This sort of fabrication and fudging of the data happens in other genres of discourse as well, and is just as serious a form of fraud whether it happens in a medical journal, a master's thesis, a college's re-accreditation application, a genetic engineering periodical, an opinion article, a palaeontology journal, a commencement speech, a Sunday sermon, a "sacred" text, or on the front pages of the USA Today and the New York Times.

 

Integrity and honesty are such important, unquantifiable assets! Especially when the public comes to trust a media source as being a reliable and accurate source of information. Suspicion lingers when this trust-factor is compromised, and to re-cultivate a positive public image, a journalistic corporation must sacrifice an individual who in some cases is nothing more than a corporate scape-goat. The Famous Plagiarists in this space may have committed the "A-number-one-sin-of-journalism", but one really has to wonder how many other journalists are engaging in regular patters of appropriation and how far up the editorial chain of command such practices are condoned and "winked" at--so long as a scandal doesn't erupt. Things have definitely changed in many newsrooms and in general journalistic practice since the Blair and Kelley brouhahas. And this is all for the better--good for journalism, good for readers.

 

 

 

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Profiles in Plagiarism: Journalism

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Nada Behziz




Profile:
JOUR-2005-NB/BC
Name:

Nada Behziz

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level:


Red: Severe Risk

 

Occupation:

Formerly a reporter/health writer with the Bakersfield Californian; has also worked previously as a staff reporter with the Daily Republic

 

Allegations:

"could be the worst case of plagiarism since Jayson Blair" ("California Paper Reports Finding Mass Plagiarism, regrettheerror.com); Plagiarism and fabrication in stories written for the Bakersfield Californian; An investigation by the paper would substantiate these allegations, finding "a widespread pattern, not an isolated incident . . . the problems we discovered are significant, not trivial" (Executive Editor, Mike Jenner as a preface to G. Wenner's "A California Reporter's Web of Deceit"); "Behziz . . . frequently plagiarized--presenting other reporters' work as her own . . . invented sources and then attributed plagiarized quotes to them" (Wenner, G.)

 

Results:

Behziz was fired from her position with the Bakersfield Californian; "This is a witch hunt. Too bad your news organization is not this vigilant in pursuing true wrondoers" (Behziz in an email to her former employer)

 

Known for:

A journalism career with California papers such as the Bakersfield Californian and the Daily Republic; "A journalism degree from San Francisco State University . . . prestigious awards . . . several years worth of real-world experience and an internship at the respected Center for Investigative Reporting" (Wenner, G.)

 

Overview:

Jayson Blair's Pacific Coast protégée!

Another journalist's career has come to a screeching halt as a result of plagiarism and fabrication in articles written for the Bakersfield Californian.

The Bakersfield Californian evidently overlooked an earlier indicator that their reporter Nada Behziz might have been guilty of "sloppy journalism" ("Newspaper Investigates Plagiarism Allegations"), as indeed Behziz admitted in her own version of explaining her apparent plagiarism and fabrication (Pugh, M.J. "DR Uncovers Plagiarism in Former Reporter's Work").

A letter from a reader, Dr. Girish Patel, should have alerted the popular newspaper that something fishy was going on with their newly hired reporter as early as April 2005 (Wenner, G. with S. Ruby and J. Burger. "Paper Overlooked Plagiarism Warning").

In a subsequent investigation of Behziz's reporting with the Bakersfield Californian, it was found that she had lifted text from sources such as the New York Times, and that she had fabricated and/or falsified/plagiarized quotations as if she had interviewed people when she actually had not conducted such interviews. The Bakersfield Californian reported that these incidents represented "a widespread pattern, not an isolated incident . . . the problems we discovered are significant, not trivial" (Wenner, G. "A California Reporter's Web of Deceit" Bakersfield Californian).

Yet another course in Journalism Ethics 101 for both reporters and newspaper administrators. Given the earlier indicators of Behziz's sub-par journalism, the claim by the executive editor of The Bakersfield Californian that the news of Behziz's plagiarism and fabrication "hit this newsroom like a lightning bolt" would seem to be somewhat inaccurate.

Perhaps Mike Jenner meant to say that "the fallout and resulting publicity from this case hit this newsroom like a lightning bolt".

Act surprised, now! Feign some editorial pain here so as to re-assure readers of your full intention to "take deliberate steps to protect [y]our readers' trust"! This will never happen again, of course. Of course . . .

References

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Jayson Blair

Profile:
JOUR-2003-JB/NYTIMES
Name:

Jayson Blair

 

War on Plagiarism Threat Level:


Red: Severe Risk

 

Occupation:

Formerly a reporter with the New York Times, now President of Azure Entertainment, book author, and occasional invited guest speaker to lecture to journalism students on professional ethics

 

Allegations:

Plagiarism and fabrication in high-profile, feature stories in nearly 40 articles from October 2002 to April 2003


Results:

Public confidence in journalism fell to a new low; heads rolled at the top of the NYT's editorial chain of command; Blair was fired from his position and went on to write a book about his experience, Burning Down My Master's House: My Life at the New York Times [currently out of print due to New Millenium Press bankruptcy]; Blair claimed to be a "racial pawn" and, indeed, the premises underlying Affirmative Action came under much scrutiny, fellow African-Americans suggesting (fairly or unfairly) that Blair had done much to set back progress which has been made in minority achievements


Known for:

Scandalous reporting practices at the New York Times

 

Overview:

He turned the New York Times upside down! And then Jayson Blair went out and wrote a book about it, Burning Down My Masters’ House: My Life at the New York Times.

In one of the most shocking journalistic scandals ever, a young African-American reporter with the New York Times was found to have gone on a four year "binge of fabrication and plagiarism while assigned to the highest-profile national stories of the moment" (Editor and Publisher, unsigned editorial).

Any satisfaction that editors at the Times might have secretly harbored at seeing the USA Today's reporting scandal caused by the plagiaristic antics of Jack Kelley in 2004 was forestalled in early 2003 as the Times editors found themselves on the hotseat for tolerating more than a fair share of anonymous source reporting, the "root of evil in journalism" according to founder of USA Today Al Neuharth. At the Times, this evil root seemed to be more like an underground forest.

The stories which Blair wrote up for the Times contained some of the most incredible instances of fabrication and plagiarism ever in the history of journalistic practice--tobacco fields which didn't exist, preposterious suggestions as to the identity of the Washington sniper. These sorts of fabulous concoctions were made not on the scene of the events as they unfolded--on the beat so to speak--but in the comfort of Blair's New York City apartment or office where he simply lifted the language and facts from other newspapers, or worse yet, entirely concocted important details for front-page articles of the New York Times !

Blair blamed substance abuse and bipolar disorder for his actions, and he also claimed to have been a "racial pawn". But there seems to have been serious problems with the "system" as well at the New York Times, the way in which reporters were allowed to write stories without editorial verification of sources and background information, and without editors heeding warnings/indications that there were serious problems with Blair's stories.

These problems resulted both in the Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd quitting their jobs with the Times, and newspapers across the nation closely scrutinized their reporting practices as the dust settled.

The public distrust of media outlets, as national newspaper publishers well know, is not something to take for granted. The Jayson Blair ordeal marked a new era in journalism as the profession sought to rein in anonymous source reporting and create a system of greater accountability in news reporting. As a result of Blairs misdeeds at the Times, j ournalistic events are now categorized as occurring either pre- or post-Jayson Blair.

In a post-Jayson Blair world, editors don't take for granted anymore that their correspondents have actually written their own stories--as opposed to plagiarizing, concocting, or otherwise fabricating them while on the journalism beat. And they're checking receipts more carefully to be sure that reporters have actually been in whatever locale for enough time to justify the dateline. More than just a few hours doesn't cut it anymore, as Rick Bragg found out from a drive-by-journalism incident in Apalachicola, Florida. It's a post-Jayson Blair world, and things have changed.





References

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Rick Bragg

Profile:
JOUR-2003-RB
Name:

Rick Bragg

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level:
Occupation:

Bestselling author and journalist

 

Allegations:

"Drive by journalism" (Howard Kurtz) and use of an intern's reporting without acknowledgement

 

Results:

Resigned from the New York Times; "Ripple effect" (Terence Smith) felt in newsrooms across the US as part of the continuing aftershocks from the Jayson Blair affair

 

Known for:

Bestselling books All Over But the Shoutin' and Ava's Man; Pulitzer Prize recipient

 

Overview:

In a post-Jayson Blair world of journalism, the aftershocks are still being felt as newsrooms grapple with the reality of the public's distrust of the media. In a panel interview with Greg Mitchell, Julia Wallace, John Temple, and Marvin Kalb, Terence Smith observed that public perceptions of media truthfulness were at an all time low as indicated by a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll. According to this poll, 62 percent of respondents felt that the media is "often inaccurate" and only 36 percent felt that the news media gets the facts right.

Even a well-regarded Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent has felt the heat following the Jayson Blair ordeal at the New York Times.

Rick Bragg was suspended for two weeks following a reporting stint involving extensive use of an intern's work. J. Wes Yoder did most of the leg work and Bragg simply made a one day stop in Florida to get a dateline for the story before publication. Such extensive use of interns, stringers, and free lance writers work has been referred to as "drive by journalism". A well known, high profile correspondent makes a quick stop in the locale of an important story just to be able to say he had been there, but all of the footwork has already been done by the interns and "stringers" who rarely get a byline for their contributions. Gas and lunch money is about all they can count on beyond a pittance of remuneration from their drive by superiors.

Aggressively defending his jobbing out of the reporting to Yoder, Rick Bragg didn't go down quietly. Rather, he insisted that what he had done was par for the course, common practice and routine among journalists. As Greg Mitchell observed, "I think one of the most shocking revelations in the story was that Bragg said this was routine for him, he claimed it's routine for many people at The New York Times, and it's routine in the industry."

Other reporters backed up Bragg's assertions. For example, Times freelancer Lisa Suhay thought Bragg was "being punished for what I as a freelancer, have seen in four years as common practice . . It was simply understood that I got paid to be invisible, a nonentity" (Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post).

Bragg's aggressive defense, particularly his trenchant observation that the Times fostered a "poisonous atmosphere" for news reporting, cut deeply after the wounds already inflicted by plagiarism and fabrication á la Jayson Blair. Gregg Mitchell discussed the profound "ripple effect" in newsrooms across the US and the tightening up of journalistic standards. Editors everywhere warned their staff, "It can happen here" and "trust, but verify."

Jack Shafer placed more of the blame directly on Bragg, not accepting the Pulitzer Prize winner's assertion that the "poisonous atmosphere" made him do it. For Shafer, it was more of an "elemental sense of intellectual dishonesty" which reveals the deceitful nature of drive-by-journalism. Claiming to have been in Apalachicola, Florida to write up a detailed story on oyster fisherman just isn't an honest journalistic representation of things. The "everybody's doing it" argument just doesn't hold up to scrutiny in a post-Jayson Blair world anymore.

Bragg sumitted his resignation shortly after his two week suspension from the Times, leaving behind a scene of turmoil and ongoing re-examination of journalistic practice.

References

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Lloyd Brown

 

Profile:
JOUR-2005-LB
Name:

Lloyd Brown

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level:
Occupation:

Formerly a page Editor for The Florida Times-Union; Speechwriter for Florida Governor Jeb Bush

 

Allegations:

Plagiarism of editorial content

 

Results:

Resigned from The Florida Times-Union; Also resigned his speechwriting post with Jeb Bush only a month into his new job

 

Known for:

A 42 year career in journalism with The Florida Times-Union

 

Overview:

The Ledger reported on January 24, 2005, that Lloyd Brown had resigned his $80,000 per year speechwriter post with Florida Governor Jeb Bush after damaging allegations of plagiarism and pornography-addiction were publicized by a former co-worker.

Apparently, after 42 years with The Florida Times-Union, Brown was discovered to have lifted editorial content for re-use in his own work for the Times-Union. Coupled with the publicized pornography-addiction allegations, the fact that Brown had left the Times-Union after several incidents of plagiarism represented a potential threat to the public image of his new boss.

So rather than stay on as a speechwriter with Governor Bush, Brown submitted his resignation("A Speechwriter's Exit Speech").

References

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Fox Butterfield

 

Profile:
JOUR-1991-FB
Name:

Fox Butterfield

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level:
Occupation:

At the time, Butterfield was the Boston bureau chief for The New York Times

 

Allegations:

Copied portions of an article by Anthony Flint and Muriel Cohen while writing up a story on the plagiarized commencement address of Boston University's H. Joachim Maitre

 

Results:

Suspended for one week; kept on as Boston bureau chief for The New York Times

 

Known for:

Career journalism

 

Overview:

When a bureau chief for The New York Times got caught for plagiarizing in a story about another plagiarist who got caught plagiarizing, he got sacked--for a week anyhow. This was the pre-Jayson Blair era in journalism.

For the New York Times, and for many other journalistic enterprises, time is now reckoned on the pre-J.B. and post-J.B calendar. Journalists today are much more aware of the need for journalistic integrity thanks to that salacious episode in journalistic wrongdoing which disgraced the Times back in 2002-03. Being more aware doesn't always mean though that such integrity will happen automatically after that.

Fox Butterfield lifted around 5-6 paragraphs of the story in the Boston Globe by Anthony Flint and Muriel Cohen ("BU dean used the words of another; Source not given during speech"). Flint and Cohen were breaking the story in the Globe on the unacknowledged derivation in a commencement address by H. Joachim Maitre, Boston University's Dean of the College of Communication.

Butterfield's lifting wasn't entirely word-for-word as he had switched things around a bit and employed some skillful synonym substitution and minimal paraphrase. This bit of plagiarism in a story about plagiarism got Butterfield suspended for only a week, and the New York Times happily kept him on.

Remember, this was the pre-Jayson Blair era.

In the post-J.B. world of journalism, correspondents and bureau chiefs are likely to be suspended for much longer. Witness the case of Jonathan P. Decker, suspended for 2 years from contributing to The Christian Science Monitor for a similar infraction--even a paragraph less at 4 total compared to Butterfield's 5-6!

In a post-J.B. world and the broader "War on Plagiarism", pre-emptive strikes are being effectively employed to counter the threat of textual terror.



References

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Ann Coulter

 

Profile:
JOUR-2006-AC
Name:

Ann Coulter

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level:


Yellow: Elevated Risk

 

Occupation:

Right wing columnist, lawyer and book author

 

Allegations:

Cribbing and plagiarism in syndicated newspaper columns as well as her most recent book, Godless

 

Results:

Universal Press Syndicate investigated the plagiarism allegations and concluded that "minimal matching text is not plagiarism" stating also that "Universal Press Syndicate is confident in the ability of Ms. Coulter, an attorney and frequent media target, to know when to make attribution and when not to" ("Sorry harpies--syndicator sees no Coulter plagiarism", Chicago Tribune); John Barrie of Turnitin.com sees things differently--he claims to have found examples of "textbook plagiarism" in Coulter's work

 

Known for:

Right wing commentary/punditry

 

Overview:

Hmmmm. . . where to put this one? Politics? Non-fiction? Journalism?

We'll write up these allegations against Ann Coulter on the journalism page given that the plagiarism accusations included her syndicated columns as well as her Godless book.

Credit the bloggers once again for calling attention to possible instances of plagiarism/fabrication in the media. Salacious allegations of plagiarism against "Rush Limbaugh in a mini-skirt" (as Coulter has been referred to) had been circulating for several months before a New York Post article on "Copycatty Coulter Pilfers Prose: Pro".

As Philip Recchia reports in that bastion of journalistic integrity, the New York Post, chunks of text in Coulter's articles/book seem to have been lifted from sources including previously published newspaper articles. The matching snippets of text were found using the standard cheat detection software employed by Turnitin.com to catch student plagiarists, and, indeed, Turnitin CEO John Barrie described Coulter's alleged copying as "textbook plagiarism".

Tabloid and blogosphere origins of these allegations aside, coming from John Barrie himself, the allegations of "textbook plagiarism" would seem to be rather serious at first glance. As Barrie notes in his consultation with the NYPost, there are "misleading" citations "used purely to try and give the book a higher level of credibility-as if it's an academic work. But her sloppiness in failing to properly attribute many other passages strips it of nearly all its academic merits."

In defense of Coulter, it has been interesting to note that both her critics and her syndicate (Universal Press) have concluded that the allegations are not quite as serious as the mortal enemies of the "leggy blonde pundit" (Recchia, P. "Copycatty Coulter Pilfers Prose: Pro") might have wished. For example, Aaron Barlow, who describes himself as a "certified leftist", writes that Coulter's plagiary seems to be of the sort that

can happen (almost) by accident--and certainly through carelessness. That doesn't excuse it, but it should be seen in a different light . . . The plagiarism of Ann Coulter strikes me as the result of sloppiness and inattention . . . The passages she plagiarized all seem to be plebian . . . What happened to her is probably what happened to Ambrose and Goodwin. All three likely did what I do (or had underlings do it for them), but sufficient care was not taken to keep the copied prose from original writings . . . The failure is not so much one of honesty but of care (Barlow, A. "One Flew East: Levels of Plagiarism").

While Barlow and many others would certainly love to see "Rush Limbaugh in a mini-skirt" exposed for a career-ending plagiarism gaffe, "There are plenty of other reasons for that [destroying her career]" (Barlow, A. "One Flew East: Levels of Plagiarism").

After investigating the alleged plagiary by Coulter ("Syndicate Will Look Into Alleged Coulter Plagiarism On Its Own--And Possibly With Electronic Tool" Editor and Publisher), the Universal Press Syndicate dismissed the charges and released a statement in support of their best-selling author/commentator: "There are only so many ways you can rewrite a fact and minimal matching text is not plagiarism" ("Syndicator Dismisses Coulter Plagiarism Charges." AP article carried by Fox News)

Human Events' Lisa De Pasquale also came to Coulter's defense in "Debunking the Coulter Plagiarism Charges" (July 10, 2006). To De Pasquale, the NYPost article comprised recycled content from "nut websites", and she downplayed the significance of "plagiarism expert" John Barrie's "textbook plagiarism" allegations. De Pasquale notes quite correctly that the NYPost's Philip Recchia "gave no examples of passages that were plagiarized by Ann Coulter so the reader could compare them." It seems that iParidigms/Turnitin.com is unwilling to just hand over the originality report which they compiled on Coulter's book and syndicated columns, a stance which De Pasquale sees as "suspicious".

However, it would seem that a proprietary company specializing in plagiarism detection is not obligated to provide a copy of an "originality report" to any entity other than the entity which paid iParidigms to create that report, the NYPost in this case. Had the NYPost chosen to print portions of this report, this would have greatly added to the substance of the plagiarism allegations against Coulter. John Barrie is certainly no lightweight when it comes to plagiarism detection, and De Pasquale's casual dismissal of Barrie, as exemplified in the quotation marks around "plagiarism expert" (dual use technology here for a quote and seemingly as a tool to cast doubt on Barrie's claims to expertise), are clever attempts at diversion. A smokescreen.

Threat Level Analysis for this case subject to revision depending upon further developments, further study if and when aforesaid passages become available for inquisitive critics of Coulter's composing strategies . . .


References

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Jonathan P. Decker

 

Profile:
JOUR-2005-JPD
Name:

Jonathan P. Decker

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level:
Occupation:

Free lance journalist; Professor of Journalism in Howard University's John H. Johnson's School of Communications

 

Allegations:

Alleged plagiarism of an article by Greg Greenberg in the financial journal TheStreet.com

 

Results:

Banned from contributing to the Christian Science Monitor for two years

 

Known for:

Teaching broadcast news courses at Howard University; Regular contributor/consultant to PBS broadcast This Week in Business

 

Overview:

As reported by Brett Arends of The Boston Herald, an instance of online cut-n-paste has resulted in a two year ban for veteran journalist/professor/consultant Jonathan P. Decker from contributing to The Christian Science Monitor.

The article in question, "Can mutual funds that hedge give you an edge?", was published in the April 18 (2005) edition of the Monitor. Shortly after publication, it was discovered that there were similarities to an article published in the financial journal TheStreet.com by Gregg Greenberg.

Apparently, Decker admitted having cut-n-pasted from Greenberg's article, and the editors of the Monitor felt the journalistic infraction serious enough to institute the two year ban on the veteran journalist and professor.

Decker's students speak very highly of him, having nothing but praise for the vast experience which "help[s] to mold tomorrow's future journalist." He has interviewed a number of luminaries and historical figures, and he is "the only full time White House Press Corp member that is also a tenured journalism professor"(M. Holmes).

Four lifted paragraphs was evidently all it took to cast a shadow on an otherwise impeccable journalistic pedigree.

References

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Stephen H. Dunphy

 


Profile:
JOUR-2004-SHD/SEATTLE-TIMES
Name:

Stephen H. Dunphy

 

War on
Plagiarism
Threat Level: