Colo. intern finds out you can't just copy & paste the NYT archive

I got one of my jobs (my least enjoyable one) thanks to a chronic plagarizer who was caught in the act and fired, I basically filled his open spot. He was subsequently caught at at least two newspapers after that too. Some people just can't help it.

 

Great news. You're very fortunate. Keep sticking to your guns.

 

Imagine if she'd "borrowed" from the archives of other NY papers:

Outlined against a blue-gray Rocky Mountain sky, the four oarsmen rowed again. In an old tale they go by famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only pseudonyms. They're really Jones, McBride, Simmons and Garcia.

 

The Times sez, don't plagiarize. Unless you work for the Times like, say, Maureen Dowd.

 

I'd really love to know how Hailey thought she could get away with it -- or even if plagiarism crossed her mind. It appears she would be given an assignment, searched for the words in the NYT archive and came up with examples. Moreover, I wonder how she was caught. What I'm guessing is that her editors read her copy and thought, "Wow. This is good. Too good." Does anyone know? Or am I going to have to read it in her book?

 

There is plagiarism software now. Many big newspapers run it routinely to make sure people aren't stealing stuff from other places.

 

All it takes is one person in Colorado Springs who reads the NYT online and hears an echo when s/he reads the local paper.

 

Speaking of which.......

The student newspaper today ran a front page, above the fold story about her firing and possible expulsion. And as of 8:48 p.m. it's still the second story on the Web site.

http://www.alligator.org/articles/2009/07/09/news/campus/090708_plagiarism.txt

IMHO, Hailey, while incredibly stupid, is not a public figure at UF and does not deserve to have her business aired to 65,000 people all over campus. What purpose does this serve, other than completely humiliating the girl?

 

What purpose does it serve? How about it serves the purpose to warn others in the journalism school that it's not a good idea to plagiarize? And besides, it already had been in the Colorado paper so it's not like the news wasn't out there.

 

To me, Maureen Dowd's recent plagarism episode is a thousand times worse than some college kid doing it. The NYT would be a better paper if they employed editors who applied standards the rest of us live with instead of the chickenshits who let MoDo do whatever the hell she wants...


http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/69869/

 

fired a reporter who i caught plagiarizing and she ended up collecting unemployment because i had never officially told her she shouldn't steal other people's work. tried explaining to the moron at the workforce commission that i wouldn't have to tell a cashier not to steal money from the register but he didn't see the similarity.

 

Wow.........just wow. But I guess that's why we really should all have codes of conduct - spell it out for everyone.

I heartily agree.