Ron Borges - Plagiarist?

Frank - i did not see your comment. Please post it again. I will look for it. We get plenty of spam, and while deleting it, sometimes comments get deleted. I will be looking for it. We let all comments go through.

 

biglead,

Getty photos are expensive. I don't think they will be honored just to see their names on the blog.

 

Good point, Ace.

Frank - As of right now, 7:25 pm, no more getty or AP photos on the Big Lead! Please monitor this next week (as I'm sure you will) and I hope you send this email to AP and Getty as well.

And most of all, thanks for reading.

 

Not the first time Borges copied Sando

http://blog.greaterboston.tv/?p=82

 

the following comment, regarding borges, comes from a reader of dan kennedy's medianation blog:



I've never heard of Borges, and, if he is a sports columnist, it is highly unlike that I would have read any of his columns. He'll probably go on to the WEEI "Howie Carr" mega-ditto mega money heaven, and it's really irrelevant.

But I do have to tell you that "plagiarism" is a pretty weak reed to hang someone from.

It's one thing if the Glob was concerned about copyright infringement. But apparently they aren't. Plagiarism is an academic issue--using other peoples' works without attribution, not just using other peoples' issues. In academic papers, the attributees are handled by way of footnotes, but it would get rather annoying to see footnotes in a newspaper. Or things like "as xyz said, 'tom brady had a wonderful year'." Borrrrring.

If the Glob feels defrauded because one of its columnists has made use of someone else's texts, instead of formulating the same text himself, why don't they just say so? That's the real issue, isn't it? They're paying someone a salary to do something (write some text that they can splash onto fish wrapping and birdcage liner) and the person to whom they are paying the salary to is using other persons' text. Why don't they just say that's the issue? That was the real issue with Barnicle, wasn't it?

Quite frankly, I don't have a problem with them using other peoples' text. But then again, I'm not selling fish wrapping and birdcage liner.

--raj

 

No, the "real issue" is stealing somebody else's work.
And that post is exhibit A in why blog commenters need to STFU.

 

In addition to the sheer laziness in this example, it's further troubling that it's misleading. A reader rightfully should get the impression Borges had contacted Mora for a comment, when, in fact, Sando was the one who attempted to get the comment.

 

If I had a gun to my head and was forced to choose between hiring a plagiarist or somebody who interprets information and concepts like this (and has such an obviously hard time conveying whatever the hell it is he's trying to say), I would have a tough choice to make.

 

Again -- I continue to be mystified as to why this debate (except for the Big Lead/photos sidebar) has gone on for most of its nine pages.

He lifted work -- word for word -- and put it under his byline.

I don't give a shit what you call it, either. It's called "the newspaper paid for the work of Ron Borges, and he gave them the work of somebody else by doing nothing more taxing than a cut and paste."

 

A few days before the Saints-Bears NFC Championship Game, knowing I would have Bears sidebar duty, I talked to the folks at South Carolina to see if I could interview Spurrier. I wanted some background on Grossman in case it could help flesh out my sidebar that weekend. The SID staff said Spurrier agreed to do one interview on the subject, and one alone: with The State in Columbia.

I understood and took a different approach.

A day later I saw a nearby newspaper column, written by a veteran I respect, that set up the upcoming game with quotes from Spurrier about Grossman. I was frustrated for obvious reasons. It read like he had a conversation with Spurrier. Then I called up the column in The State, and the quotes were identical. So was much of the column. No mention of The State in this column, which ran at least a day, maybe two, after The State column.

I was slightly pissed. What I mostly felt was disappointment that someone I respected used quotes from another paper and did not give credit to the original source. A peer said maybe AP picked up the story, and he used the quotes from that version and thought it would be OK.

It is apples and oranges, in a way, but every time I look at this thread I think about that. Plagiarism, or not?

 

If the SID was telling the truth, then I would consider what you saw plagiarism.

 

or the guy got permission from the dude at The State to use the quote?