Fla. St. beat writer resigns amid plagiarism charges.

Tallahassee Democrat beat writer Natalie Pierce quit after plagiarism charges arose.

http://deadspin.com/florida-state-beat-writer-resigns-after-plagiarism-char-1641861865

 

Was that wrong?

 

Seems like she might be taking the approach that she did it by accident, forgetting to rework or delete something that was copied from the original story?

 

This is why you don't read other people's work if you're doing a story that someone else has already done. And, if you must read them, get a hard copy or print a hard copy. But you sure as hell don't copy and paste their story into your notes.

In my 22 years in this business, more than half covering college athletics, I've never made anything close to that kind of mistake.

I would like to say this is just someone being dumb, but I think it's more on the side of someone just being lazy.

 

And where were the quotes from? Guess they were quoted after the game? And both writers were present for all the interviews. Can't really tell, and Tallahassee link is no longer valid, apparently.

 

You nailed it with that first sentence.

 

Second and third sentences, too.
Really, does any plagiarist's "explanation" ever sound plausible?

 

The last part was interesting:

Sounds like she could have kept her job if she had fought for it, but figured she'd be persona non grata if she stayed around. Hey, at least she doesn't have to cover Jameis Winston anymore.

 

I don't understand how she can say she didn't intend to plagiarize him. It seems like more of a case of not understanding what plagiarism is.

As a side note, and semi-related, while researching a piece over the last couple weeks, I came across material that wasn't plagiarized, but instead added dramatic details that were not in the source material. For example, in the source material, an autobiography, the player dryly describes approaching his coach. In the piece that uses the autobiography as a source, it explains that "his heart jackhammering as he walked up to his coach." And that's not isolated - there are a lot of dramatic embellishments like that.

I'm not sure which is worse, plagiarism, or that kind of misrepresentation, which is basically making shit up. But one is a career-ending sin, the other gets you a book deal.

 

Maybe he was wearing a heart rate monitor, and only this one journalist was aware of it.

 

How long has The Democrat been a Gannett paper?

 

Since 2005. It was Knight-Ridder for years before that.