Everett Herald says sports columnist lifted passages from SI

I've worried about that as well. Sometimes, if I think of a great line, I'll suddenly wonder where I've heard it or read it before.

Because, God knows, if it's a great line it can't have come from my brain (such as it is).

 

It's interesting that everyone is trying to come up with some explanation for why this might happen. After all, it makes no sense for someone to do this. I can't come up with any scenario where it might seem like a good option. In fact, I can't understand how someone might hatch such a plan.

 

But again, this wasn't a matter of just using a "great line." This is a columnist saying these things happened, to him. Only it turns out they didn't, they happened to Rick Reilly.

 

Not the point of the thread at all, but how could you even eat a Blizzard on the bench? How would you get one there? Is there a DQ stand in the gym? A courtside freezer? Those things melt in minutes.

 

I actually replaced a guy caught for plagurism at a shop who did just that. He was summarily fired from another paper for doing the same thing. I guess he was lifting the ledes of stories and columns, among other things.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

 

My third job in this business was replacing a guy who was caught plagiarizing.

He was hired at another big paper quickly because the paper gave him a chance to resign and didn't tell anyone anything when they called for a recommendation. They were afraid to be sued...

Lovely business isn't it?

 

so you're the arbiter of mistakes.

ever hear of a mistake in judgment?

look, if this guy had a clean record for 20 years, does it occur to you that this was aberrational behavior? only he knows what was going on, but the point is that people are human. they make errors in judgment, usually under stress. this notion that plagiarism is like first-degree murder - off with his head! - is just medieval. yes, it's admirable and necessary to have high journalistic standards, but there are worse offenses than what he committed. he didn't write anything that was false and malicious, or knowingly libel someone, or knowingly alter data, or knowingly misquote someone, or have a conflict of interest, or take payment or benefits from someone he wrote about. there are degrees of malfeasance. some are worse than others. you can't have the death penalty for everything - harumph, the 'sacred code', harumph - especially if the guy has a clean record and you don't know his circumstances.

 

Plagiarism isn't like first-degree murder. That's why people are calling for only his firing.

 

All businesses have rules that, if broken, almost always lead to termination.

I worked summers at a bank. If you stole so much as a dime, you were fired. Period. Didn't matter what your position was. They even warned the tellers that if a silver dollar came in, they were NOT to take it and put their own dollar in the till, because there was a chance the silver dollar was worth more and, thus, that would be stealing.

Last winter I was talking to a ski patroller at a major Utah resort. I joked that they must have had a ball skiing closed terrain. No, he said, if you're caught skiing closed terrain, you're fired, because it's closed for a reason. "Come on," I said, "I've heard a hundred stories about the great stuff patrollers get access to." Sure, he said, often checking on conditions, but if it's flat-out closed, and you ski it, you're fired.

In our business, if you plagiarize, you should be fired. Period. And you would be at any paper I've worked at. It's a simple rule, an important one, and everyone with 5 minutes in this business knows how serious it is.

 

Not being an ass when I ask this question, just wondering: you in this business?

And I don't sense any joy in this thread. Nobody is doing kegstands at this guy's wake. Most of us are simply morbidly interested in how somebody in our line of work could reach this point because, seriously, it would be easier for me to rob a bank than to do this. It reeks of one losing their grip on reality. I don't know him but I wish him nothing but the best.

 

I can't think of a single writer in our state who has ever been fired for plagarism in the last 20 years.
Not. One.
At my paper, we've had writers lift things word for word, write stories with invented sources, write stories based on faux internet stories without checking with official sources ... all without so much as a suspension.
I know one SE - at a large paper - who makes up quotes. Not. a. problem.

Not saying it's not serious. It is. Very few papers terminate an employee for it - in my experience anyway.

 

Unfortunately, I think too much depends on how they were caught.