Everett Herald says sports columnist lifted passages from SI

This was like ultra-plagiarism. The guy didn't just steal some of Reilly's jokes or well-written passages. He actually took Reilly's experiences from a first-person column and presented them as his own. Unbelievable.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I'd watch the guy closely when he comes into the office. He's so bone stupid he'll get pink-slipped and pack up somebody else's desk.

YD&OHS, etc

 

I struggle to find a way to explain this that doesn't involve wholesale ripping off of Reilly.

Might he have "subconsciously copied" the thing, as George Harrison suggested in the case of My Sweet Lord vs. He's So Fine?

Doubtful, I guess.

 

off with his head!
violating the "sacred code".
i guess you're the high priest.

what if it's his first violation?
what if he has a family that needs to be fed?
what if he was sick that night, or depressed by a death in his family?

people are human - they make mistakes.
the athletes you cover make mistakes all the time - and get second and third and fourth chances. and you're okay with that.

but let this poor guy make one mistake and you demand the death penalty...without knowing anything about the circumstances.

"sacred code". can you possibly be any more pompous?

 

Henry, I hope that your post is merely a nice attempt at satire. Or that you're John Sleeper.

 

Is there some kind of annual vote for worst post of the year? If so, methinks we have a front-runner.

 

Satire, I guess. I just really struggle with these kinds cases and hope I don't stumble unwittingly into something like this myself some day.

 

Well, don't steal work from other writers. It's pretty simple to stay out of trouble here.

The Reilly column in question is my all-time favorite of his. I would have spotted this bad dub in a heartbeat. I only wish I could have been the editor that day. Would have been fun to bust him.

 

The nice thing is that dumb accidents are easy enough to separate from straight stealing. No excuses on this. No bad days. You don't take money to look the other way when you're a cop and you don't put your name on somebody else's shit when you're a writer.

 

That guy's journalism career should be over but he'll probably lie on his resume and get another gig somewhere else.

 

No, not me. This guy is a disgrace to our good name.

 

We have a good name?

I think the line is getting so blurry these days, when politico like Willie Brown is given a column in the SF Chronicle to write about his friends and business associates, when "news contributors" are allowed to knowingly lie on the cable channels, authors of "memoirs" are given million dollar advances and yet some schlub at a second-tier paper is raked over the coals for incorporating thematic elements of a Rick Reilly column. I'm not saying what he did was okay, but it's like the difference between a guy who robs a bank with a gun versus a guy who robs it with a briefcase.