Wash Times Casts Paul Adrift Over Plagiarized Column

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The Washington Times is discontinuing Sen. Rand Paul's (R.-Ky.) weekly column after BuzzFeed reported that his Sept. 20  Times column lifted passages from a Dan Stewart article in The Week without attribution, the Gawker.com Web site reports.

The Times' decision to end the column that Paul began writing last summer is the sour cherry atop a melted sundae of a week for the 50-year-old Republican and Tea Party fave who was elected to the Senate in 2010. Last week, Politico and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC alleged that speeches given by Paul have plagiarized a variety of sources, including Associated Press articles and Wikipedia pages for the films Stand and Deliver and Gattaca, Additionally, BuzzFeed claims Paul's book, Government Bullies, cribbed from a 2003 Heritage Foundation study without attribution.

Confronted with these embarrassing missteps, Sen. Paul stepped up to the plate and blamed his staff. Still, it seems as if Paul, an opthalmologist, doctors his written work as well.

College Daily Dumps Online Editor for Stealing, Not Sharing, Others' Opinions

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Grand Junction based Colorado Mesa Univ.'s student paper, The Criterion, has dismissed its online editor for allegedly committing at least 16 instances of plagiarism from more than 22 publications, Poynter.org reports.

The Criterion's editor-in-chief axed the online editor, who was not identified in the paper's post about the transgressions, and invited readers to report on any additional purported purloining by the online editor. At least the former Criterion staffer, who ought to be re-thinking her career choice about now, infringed on copyrighted material from noteworthy sources, including AP, The Washington Post and The Wall St. Journal.

Did Jane Goodall's New Book 'Ape' Other Works?

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Seeds of Hope is the new book co-authored by conservationist/animal activist Dame Jane Goodall and Gail Hudson, but according to The Washington Post, some of the "roots" of Seeds were pulled from other sources without attribution.

Initially discovered by a Post book reviewer, the daily allegedly uncovered at least a dozen passages in Seeds of Hope that lacked footnotes or attribution, and in some instances, appeared verbatim on Web sites. Additionally, the Post raised questions about the authenticity of  interviews and quotes that appear in the book.

The book, for example, attributes a quote to a purported interview with botanist Matt Daws, but the same quote appeared in a 2009 article on the Gardens Web site, and Daws responded to a Post email that he did not recall ever speaking to Goodall. The book also includes unattributed passages from the Choice Organic Teas Web site, an institution that contributes to the Jane Goodall Institute, according to the Post article.

Grand Central, publisher of the book, which lacks end notes or a bibliography, promised to add credits in subsequent editions of Seeds of Hope. The 78-year-old Goodall, best-known for her 45-year study of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park, emailed the Post that she was "distressed to discover that some of the excellent and valuable sources were not properly cited, and I want to express my sincere apologies."

When it comes to book research, as the old adage says: "Monkey see, monkey cite."

Plagiarist's Palaver Pays Plenty

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Confession is good for the soul, but sometimes, it's also good for the bank account, Jonah Lehrer learned.

The New York Times reported that Lehrer was paid a $20,000 honorarium by the Knight Foundation, which sponsored a community journalism conference in Miami yesterday at which Lehrer delivered a speech about his plagiarism-derailed career that was streamed live online.

The New Yorker fired Lehrer last summer and the publisher of his book, Imagine: How Creativity Works (2012) pulled the book off shelves after it was revealed that Lehrer had made up quotes attributed to legendary folk singer Bob Dylan (see "TUOL" post 7/31/12).

According to the Times article,  Lehrer told the attendees: "I am the author of a book on creativity that contains several fabricated Bob Dylan quotes," and "I committed plagiarism on my blog, taking without credit or citation an entire paragraph from the blog of Christian Jarrett." Lehrer's introductory elevator speech needs a little work.

Apparently using his own words, Lehrer pledged to the audience that if were ever to write professionally again, he would tape and transcribe his interviews and make the transcripts available to interview subjects who requested them. Writing, however, is hard work, whereas there is easy money to be made on the mea culpa lecture circuit.

Unhealthy Environment: WaPo Apologizes for Plagiarism

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Correspondent William Booth is in hot water after the Washington Post apologized to readers for Booth's alleged plagiarism of a professor's article for a  monthly scientific journal, the Poynter.org Web site reported yesterday.

Booth allegedly lifted four sentences without attribution from an article by Prof. Andrea Hricko entitled "Progress and Pollution: Port Cities Prepare for the Panama Canal Expansion," from the December 3 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. An editor's note apologized to the author and readers for the "serious lapse," and promised Booth faced "severe and appropriate" action for his transgression.

Op Ed Plagiarism Costs Education Director His Job

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An apparently plagiarized opinion piece in the January 5 issue of the Toronto Star touched off a feeding frenzy by the Canadian Press that cost Chris Spence, the Toronto District School Board's director of education, his job, according to the iMediaEthics.org blog.

After a reader tipped off public editor Kathy English, the Star posted a Note atop Spence's op-ed that read:

"This Opinion article includes substantial unattributed material from several other sources. Those sources include the 'Coaching Excellence' blog of the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching, the blog, Pro Sport Chick, an online encyclopedia and a 1989 Op-Ed article in the New York Times written by Anita L. Defrantz, then president of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles and a current member of the International Olympic Committee. Spence has acknowledged  that he plagiarized parts of his article and apologized to the Star and its readers."

Spence's contrite mea culpa failed to calm the waters, however, as the National Post uncovered what it claimed were other instances of plagiarism, and The Globe and Mail raised doubts concerning Spence's dissertation, alleging it contained unattributed material. Spence has resigned from the School Board post, iMediaEthics reported.

Hartford Courant Unprepared for Plagiarized Boy Scouts Article

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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).

'GPS' Host Loses Direction--Suspended by CNN/Time for Plagiarism

(Photo credit: marsmet541)Add Fareed Zakaria to the list of prominent media types tripped up by allegations of plagiarism.

The ubiquitous 48-year-old Zakaria, who hosts CNN foreign-affairs program GPS, is a Washington Post columnist and a Time Magazine editor at-large, admitted his recent Time column on gun control mirrored a more in-depth article on guns in America by Harvard University historian Jill Lepore that appeared in the April 23, 2012, issue of The New Yorker.

Zakaria's indiscretion was flagged by the NewsBusters conservative Web site and further disseminated by media columnist Jim Romanesko on his blog. Zakaria has been suspended indefinitely by CNN and for at least a month by Time pending further review of his past work. Both are Time Warner properties.

In reports by the Associated Press and The New York Times, Zakaria was quoted as saying: "I made a terrible mistake. It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologize unreservedly to her, to my editors at Time, and to my readers."

Zakaria, who holds degrees from Harvard and Yale, was taken to task earlier this year for delivering a commencement speech at Harvard very similar to one he previously gave at Duke University. The staff of "TUOL" thought the commencement flap a bit of a tempest in a teapot as both speeches were his words and views speakers who ride the college commencement gravy train as somewhat like touring stand-up comics who perform basically the same routines at clubs around the country. There are a limited number of ways, after all, to tell fresh-faced grads headed toward unemployment or Starbucks barista training to "make a difference."

Plagiarism, however, is no laughing matter to this blog. Laziness is a common factor in the offense, and often in the case of new journalists, ignorance plays a part, whereas hubris often is the downfall of more prominent media figures. Whatever the cause, it's theft and a fireable offense in the eyes of "TUOL."

It's sad to see an intelligent individual such as Zakaria take the walk of shame that author/science writer Jonah Lehrer took last month (see "TUOL" post 7/31/12) and  that cost Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sari Horwitz her job at the Washington Post last year (see "TUOL" post 3/23/11).

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.

Hungarian Prez Beats Plagiarism Rap-sody

Pál Schmitt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Hungary's President, Pal Schmitt, must have a few pals among the five-member Semmelweis University committee who concluded Schmitt's  215-page, 1992 doctoral dissertation on the Olympic Games did not involve plagiarism by the nation's leader.

HVG, a Hungarian weekly magazine, created shockwaves last January when it claimed Schmitt's thesis included portions that had been copied from other writers' works, particularly in the wake of resignations a year earlier by Hungarian politicians Silvana Koch-Mehrin and Karl Theodorzu Guttenberg amid charges of plagiarism.

According to accounts by the Sofia News Agency, Novinite.com and the Associated Press and San Francisco Chronicle, the Semmelweis University panel exonerated Schmitt, though acknowledged the absence of footnotes and citations and slipshod bibliography in his work. HVG alleged 180 pages of the 215-page Schmitt thesis merely translated Bulgarian researcher Nikolai Georgiev's Analyse du programme olympique (des Jeux d'Olympiade), also written in 1992.

The five-member committee ruled Schmitt's dissertation "met the formal requirements of the time," according to the AP story. Schmitt in his youth earned two gold medals in fencing from the Summer Olympics. Some might allege that Schmitt is still engaged in fencing, only using stolen writings, instead of an epee, so it's good to have the Semmelweis University confirm the Hungarian paprika...er, paper... at issue, was Schmitt's own creation.

'Lighthouse' Columnist No Beacon of Integrity

Blueprint of Split Rock Lighthouse. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Anchor Weekly editor Steve Jeffrey has resigned, the Calgary Herald reports, the day after a humor writer allegedly uncovered at least 42 instances in which Jeffrey purportedly committed plagiarism in his local political column, "Lighthouse".

Jeffrey, who initially denied plagiarizing others works while conceding he used other writers for "inspiration," stepped down one day after humorist George Waters claimed Jeffrey merely altered minor details of others' writings in his own column, according to the Herald story.

Not the first time rough Waters brought down a Lighthouse.

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.

Maine Weekly Reporter 'Mightee Fihud' for Plagiarizing Rivals' Articles

Image via WikipediaThe Mainely Media-owned South Portland-Cape Elizabeth Sentry weekly has terminated reporter Michael J. Tobin after learning he had plagiarized articles that appeared in rival weeklies The Forecaster and The Current, the Sentry and the Poynter.org Website reported.

Sample Media Group, the parent company of Mainely Media, took the action after discovering Tobin had lifted other reporters' copy in his coverage of South Portland city meetings. Tobin, whom the Sentry hired in September 2011 without prior newspaper reporting experience, conceded filching from the competition, but claimed he did not know such conduct was verboten and lamented the lack of formal training received from the Sentry.

Not a particularly credible excuse from the ink-stained novice--the dedicated "TUOL" staffers are not canaries, but we still know how to sing. On the other hand, Mainely Media, it doesn't take a crack investigative reporter to discover that "ya get wot you pay fawr."

Politico Punts Plagiarist

Image by @jbtaylor via FlickrArlington, Va.-based Political Website Politico has jettisoned reporter Kendra Marr after editors uncovered content in several of her articles that she used without attribution from The New York Times and other publications, according to The Huffington Post.

Politico Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris said Marr resigned. Reportedly, there were a half dozen or so articles that Politico editors said in an online note on their Website "borrowed from the work of others, without attribution, in ways which we cannot defend and will not tolerate."

Kansas City Star Cans Columnist for Plagiarism

Image via WikipediaThe McClatchy Company-owned Kansas City Star has fired 31-year veteran employee Steve Penn for plagiarism.

The 53-year-old Penn, who has been a Star metro columnist since 2000, was found to have copied verbatim material contained in press releases without attribution in his columns on more than a dozen occasions dating back to 2008, according to Star Editor Mike Fannin. Penn, whose forte was human interest pieces, purportedly duplicated in one column the contents of a press release about the alliance between  Alaadeen Enterprises, Inc. and the family of the late jazz great Duke Ellington to help U.S. Veterans. Similarly, in a tribute column to restaurateur Maxine Virginia Byrd, Penn purloined descriptive phrases and a significant portion of a press release about Byrd written by a funeral home.

Trolling press releases for column content proves the old adage: the Penn is not mightier than the flack.

Post Plagiarist Punished

Image via WikipediaNo rest for the weary. No sooner had the dedicated staff of "TUOL" landed in the nation's capital for some
R & R from the rough-and-tumble world of media law and journalism ethics than it was confronted by three-time Pulitzer Prize winning, 27-year Washington Post veteran reporter Sari Horwitz's admitted plagiarism of two articles from The Arizona Republic.

Horwitz, a Tucson native, in reporting on proceedings against Jared Lee Loughner, accused shooter of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, borrowed two paragraphs from a March 4 Republic story about charges facing Loughner, and 10 paragraphs of a 15-paragraph Republic story on March 10, without crediting the Arizona daily, according to a story in The Washington Post.

Horwitz owned up to appropriating the work of the Republic reporter, blaming tight deadline pressure for her transgression.  The paper suspended her without pay for three months. Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton weighed in on the subject, noting that plagiarism in his eyes was "theft."

Pexton cited a call he received from a local schoolteacher about the matter. "Teaching her students about plagiarism," Pexton wrote, "...has become her hardest task of the year because they are so accustomed to lifting information off the Internet with no attribution. She often uses The Post as a model for how to do it right. Her job just got harder."

Plagiarism is a cardinal sin in the profession that tarnishes the reputation of all journalists who already are losing ground in the credibility battle with a skeptical public. It has to be a firing offense, even when the wrongdoer is a Pulitzer Prize winner, and the Post has not covered itself in glory with a mealy-mouth rationale for its three-month suspension that Horwitz's cheating was an aberration in a stellar career.

ESPN Drops Anchor for Plagiarism; Hears a Ding

Image via WikipediaESPN anchor Will Selva has been suspended indefinitely for failing to attribute his on-air evaluation of  an upcoming Los Angeles Lakers contest to Orange County Register sportswriter Kevin Ding, whose column contained a passage recited nearly verbatim by Selva.

Selva, a 15-year veteran of broadcast journalism, apologized for appropriating Ding's assessment of the upcoming Lakers/Spurs game, and for not adhering to ESPN's "high standards."  Apparently, Selva didn't watch ESPN's broadcast of The Decision (See "TUOL" post 7/8/10).

A spokesperson for ESPN ("Everyone Stop Plagiarizing Now"?) said the Disney-owned network took the matter seriously, but concluded the anchor made a sloppy mistake, rather than an intentional attempt to infringe on someone else's work.

UPDATE: Court Shares 'The View' of Hasselbeck in Plagiarism Suit

Cover via AmazonSiding with Survivor veteran and co-host of The View, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts found yesterday that the 33-year-old Hasselbeck did not plagiarize another author's work when she published The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide (2009)."

Susan Hassett, self-published author of Living With Celiac Disease, failed to convince the court that Hasselbeck, who suffers from the digestive condition, copied from her work to produce the best-selling G-Free Diet. This was Hassett's second go-around at Hasselbeck after the court dismissed the plaintiff's initial plagiarism claim against Hasselbeck last year(see "TUOL" posts 11/30/09 & 6/24/09).

UPDATE: Wall St. Journal 'Copy' Boy Kouwe Quits NY Times

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Confronted by his editors with accusations of multiple instances of plagiarizing passages from articles in The Wall St. Journal and Reuters (see "TUOL" post 2/16/10), business reporter Zachery Kouwe has resigned from The New York Times.

Kouwe, a former reporter for The New York Post and Dow Jones Newswires who joined the Times in 2008, contended that he never has fabricated or knowingly plagiarized a story and was in "complete shock" when editors revealed the findings of their probe that was triggered by a letter from Wall St. Journal Managing Editor Robert Thomson complaining that Kouwe had wholesale copied from Journal business writer Amir Efrati's work. 

"Inadvertently" claiming others' creative efforts as one's own on at least six separate occasions is like "accidentally" backing one's car over an annoying neighbor four times.  What the heck Kouwe?

NYT Editors' Note Concedes Reporter Stole from Wall St. Journal

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Prompted by a letter from Wall St. Journal Managing Editor Robert Thomson to Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times citing a purported half-dozen  instances of Times reporter Zachery Kouwe plagiarizing text from Journal writer Amir Efrati's Feb. 5 story concerning an agreement that froze the assets of relatives of Bernard Madoff, the Times published an Editor's Note acknowledging several articles over the past year in which Kouwe allegedly reused language from Journal and Reuters stories without attribution.

The Times said an internal investigation is ongoing and has yet to comment on the fate of Kouwe.  Appropriating the work of another reporter and taking credit for it is a serious ethical breach. Oddly, the Times Editor's Note states that nothing allegedly filched by Kouwe in his articles appears to be inaccurate. Is the Times lauding Kouwe for allegedly being a careful thief or damning him with faint praise by suggesting that at least he didn't make stories up out of whole cloth like former Times scribe Jayson Blair?