Hartford Courant Unprepared for Plagiarized Boy Scouts Article

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Tribune Co.-owned Hartford Courant, Connecticut's largest daily newspaper, this month accepted the resignation of reporter Hillary Federico, whom the daily acknowledged in a Nov. 1 "Setting the Record Straight" note purportedly committed plagiarism on two occasions in articles about quilting and the Boy Scouts.

According to a post by the iMediaEthics Web site (www.imediaethics.org), the Courant, whose daily circulation is roughly 132,000, questioned an article written by Federico on Aug. 24, 2012, about the Boy Scouts and a second piece about quilting that appeared in the Courant on March 16, 2012. The former allegedly mirrored an article written by Brad Mead that appeared on the Simsbury Patch Web site and before that, on the Simsbury Troop 175 Web site. Mead is the troop's scoutmaster.

The Courant apologized to readers in its Nov. 1 note. The daily has in recent years been tainted by plagiarism (see "TUOL" posts 11/29/11, 12/4/09, 9/4/09).

Doctored Syria Photo Elicits Apology from Austrian Publisher

(Photo credit: Claus Rebler)

Austria's largest daily newspaper, Kronen Zeitung ("Krone"), has apologized for running a photo on page 4 of its July 28, 2012, edition depicting a family seemingly escaping from the rubble of war-battered Aleppo in Syria that proved to be a photo-shopped manipulation of two separate images, iMediaEthics.org reports.

Three days after the fake photo appeared, the daily printed a letter of apology from Publisher Christophe Dichand to the  Krone's 2.7 million readers, according to the iMediaEthics post. Apparently, a photo that initially appeared July 26 on the European Pressphoto Agency Web site depicting a family in which a father, accompanied by a woman wearing a hijab, carried a child down a street was made to appear as if the family were fleeing from battle-ravaged Aleppo, where the Syrian army and insurgents have engaged in bloody clashes

Social news Web site Reddit was credited for uncovering the altered dramatic photo.

UPDATE: Anchor Weekly Suspended Based on Publisher's Plagiarism

English: Alberta Province within Canada. Español: Provincia de Alberta en Canadá. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association ("AWNA") has suspended for one year the membership of the Anchor Weekly following serial plagiarism by the weekly's former editor/publisher Steve Jeffrey.

According to reports by the Poynter.org and iMediaEthics Web sites, the AWNA, of which Jeffrey was a member, said in a press release that Jeffrey wrote a May 3 piece entitled "No More Lighthouse," alluding to the name of his former column, in which he named and apologized to writers whose work he had used without attribution.

Jeffrey resigned from the Anchor Weekly on March 27 amid allegations that more than 40 of his Lighthouse columns had filched material from 14 writers (see "TUOL" post 3/27/12). Jeffrey blamed poor judgment and his busy schedule for the multiple instances of plagiarism.  He reportedly financially settled with at least one of the writers from whom he pilfered material.

Canadian Soccer Writer Can't Kick--Loses Column Because of Plagiarism

Image via WikipediaFifteen-year veteran Montreal Gazette soccer writer Paul Carbray lost his column this week after the daily's review of his writings over two months uncovered three instances of plagiarism, the Web site iMediaEthics.org reports.

The paper apologized to readers in a March 5 Editor's Note. Carbray's columnist page has been removed from the Gazette's Web site.

UPDATE: Ecuadoran President Pardons Daily & Journos in Libel Judgment

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El Universo, facing a $40 million libel judgment, and  four journalists looking at three-year jail terms, are breathing more easily on the news that Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has issued pardons, the Associated Press reports.

Last month, the Latin American nation's highest court upheld the libel judgment awarded the 48-year-old Correa based on a story alleging Correa ordered security forces last September to open fire in a hospital filled with civilians (see "TUOL" post 2/17/12). In what amounts to a public relations coup for Correa, but fosters a growing unease among Ecuadorian journalists concerning press freedom, the president characterized his granting of the pardons as a victory over a "corrupt press," according to a post on the iMediaEthics.org Web site.

It is unclear whether a scheduled March 28 hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding the case will go forward now that El Universo and its reporters no longer are liable for the defamation judgment, .

Ogden Daily Exec Editor Apologizes for Doctored Photo

Image via WikipediaThe Ogden, Utah-based Standard-Examiner, the state's third-largest daily, apologized to its readers recently for running a dramatic front-page image on Nov. 27 that was digitally altered by the photographer, a regular contributor to the Sandusky Newspaper chain-owned daily.

The Web site iMediaEthics (formerly stinkyjournalism.org) reported that Standard-Examiner Executive Editor Andy Howell pulled the doctored image from the paper's online edition and apologized to readers in a column on Dec. 17, noting that the offending photographer was a trusted contributor to the daily. The image proved to be a composite of two photos taken 10 minutes apart, one of which depicted a modern commuter train headed toward Ogden, and the other, an Ogden-bound classic Union Pacific Steam Engine No. 844.

The Standard-Examiner claimed it would have labeled the composite image an illustration to avoid deceiving readers had they known it was not a real-time photo of the two trains.  Talk about an engineered photo.