SE caught plagiarizing

In my tenure, I've learned you can get away with a LOT of shit before you get fired.
Borrowing someone else's work and passing it off as your own is pretty low on the list.

We had a beat writer do the same thing, repeatedly. No punishment. Same guy has had repeated office melt downs (screaming, cursing, punching file cabinets, throwing equipment, telling a (female) reporter to STFU and physically threatening another reporter). Guy still works here and has never seen so much as a (one-day) suspension.

One of our copy editors routinely ignores the SE's page plan and does his own thing. Still works for us.

Another guy straight up told the City Editor he wanted to "Fuck her." No, she was NOT good looking.
He was let go the next day.

Grin and bare it.

 

This stuff sounds familiar. Very familiar.

So familiar I'd be willing to take a guess at the newspaper. But I won't.

 

I wonder if it's Mitch Krugel again?

 

Definitely. With at least one exception that can burn even the most Teflon-coated of managers: sexual harassment. That's the unforgivable screwup, possibly because it so quickly involves lawyers. Although I'm sure that somewhere, somehow, someone has even beaten that.

 

I'm glad you prevented the paper from looking foolish. Of course, you work for a company who rewards a fool as its SE. You should be switching places with the SE and fire his arse!

 

Frank, all that is true, but the fact that it's illegal does not stop it from happening. I've worked in compliance and I can tell you (thought I don't have any statistics to document this) taht retaliation against whistle blowers can and does happen ALL THE TIME, and very often the retaliator suffers no consequences whatsoever. It's difficult to prove and most people in management positions know that. So the legal prohibitions pose little deterrent to retaliation. If you're going to turn the guy in, you'd better have another job waiting, because it simply is not prudent to trust your employer to do the right thing with the financial well-being of your family hanging in the balance.

As for letting the other publication raise the stink, that's a solid course of action.

 

Probably true, Novelist. But no newspaper wants the public finding out that it covered up plagiarism instead of coming clean in public like reputable newspapers do.

 

I guess I'm the first to wonder: Given that the situation described is fairly unique -- story plagiarized, but not published, how the guy denied it, fact that situation went to the executive editor and nothing happened, review time coming up -- was it that great of an idea to post this whole thing on a public message board?

Just asking.

 

I have no worries. I will receive another excellent evaluation, because I deserve it, and anything less will raise a red flag throughout the newsroom (plus the SE isn't the only one involved with evaluations). I've named no names, hurt zero reputations, and I've done nothing wrong. But if the plagiarizing SE has been reading this and wishes to come forward and say, "Hey, this is so-and-so, and stop talking about me," then he should. (I'm sure a few SE's have been thinking, "Is this all about me?")

This whole situation has been demoralizing and bugging the crap out of me, and, through this message board, it's nice to get a bit of it off my chest. And the feedback has helped me chill out and focus on more important things in life. The powers that be can run the newsroom however they like; I'll just keep working hard and safeguarding the paper.

 

This is my absolute last post. I've already wasted too much time and mental energy on the matter, obsessing about it too much. (Plus I've neglected my Internet porn browsing and computer solitaire.) It's out of my hands, and whatever happens happens. I really don't care anymore. Thanks for the feedback.

 

Document everything. If you have a conversation with the news editor, go back to your computer and type an e-mail that says, "Thanks for talking with me about situation X. I am glad you said blah, blah, blah. At some point you will probably be needing to re-trace your exact steps. Keep all e-mails, hard and soft copies. Write memos if you have to and keep copies of them, too.