Orlando

As prominently as she used Byrd's material, she should have had that referenced in the body text of what she wrote.

I find her response infuriating.

Is Badger a married name... was she formally Emily Nipps?

 

I didn't like her quotes, but I agree with them to an extent.

* Sports departments often print items -- especially in weekly notebooks -- which the reporter did not gather and are not properly sourced. And this isn't considered a problem at all most places.

* It was foolish to give this assignment to a recent grad with presumably very little experience at any spring training park and expect her to turn in a detailed account without checking in with her often to see how she was progressing and where she was getting her information.

Now, you give that to a veteran who can tell where the nicest parks are, best hot dogs, best place for autograph hunting etc., you assume it's from experience. Where is some intern going to gather that information?

 

No... they're two different people.

 

I don't know anyone involved, but I do have one thought I'd like to share. As someone whose work has been lifted many times by other writers on my beat, including the use of quotes from one-on-one interviews, all I can say is this ...

Sports departments do a notoriously poor job of sourcing. We run national notebooks (chocked) full of (Associated Press) info, we reprint quotes we assume came from public-domain press conferences . . . This is a pretty unhealthy culture that sets many sports departments apart from the rest of their papers

... is something that, if it were to appear in a journalism text book, would be widely received as an accurate, inarguable statement. Just because someone said it to deflect attention from his or her mistakes, it doesn't make it untrue.

 

Plagiarism lawsuits are very common, especially when the material is question has been highly commercial and profitable. Case in point, Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code, was sued by a man claiming the bestseller was based on his earlier novel (Brown won).

But authors indemnify their publishers against claims and damages, so it's hard to win big bucks unless the accused has deep pockets. The more common remedies include pulling the book from the shelves, revising the book with appropriate credit, financial compensation based on royalty earnings and/or advances.

And unlike newspapers, book publishers have no obligation to check for originality or accuracy.

Probably all for another thread, but just wanted to answer the question.

 

Pretty shitty thing to do to throw someone's name out like that. (I x-ed our her name.) I guess I shouldn't expect tactfulness from Simon, but still.

 

Huh?

 

So many interesting ethical quandaries here.

I’ll address the plagiarism, since it’s most interesting.

The Orlanda GA reporter is right. And wrong. Wrong because she has her own conscience, should have followed it, and didn’t. And right in suggesting sports departments - and news organizations in general - stink when comes to appropriate sourcing.

Part of it goes back to journalism has become at universities. It’s not about reporting. It’s about column writing, takeout writing, and feature writing. Even good programs never really teach you the grind. They teach you how to write to win awards, how to write 60-inchers with narrative leads and APSE/APNE written all over them. They teach you that because it’s the fun part of the journalism. But, for thousands of journalists, it’s not the real part.

The real part involves doing well just what GA reporter did carelessly. The reporter should not have been fired. And neither should have Hill for a lapse in judgment.

I don’t think I feel so sorry for Steve Elling. He had a very good gig - one of the best in America - and it wasn’t enough. Clearly. Anybody who pads their stories for extra cash isn’t freelancing for the opportunity. He’s freelancing for the dough.

 

Uh, no. All the Sentinel had to do was e-mail the guy and ask his permission, and it probably could have used it for free.

You know, we have a sports section acting high and mighty because it won't stoop to using file art like everyone else, yet apparently lacks the resources to put together its own spring training guide, so it has to steal one out of a book?

It was laziness and theft.

I think selective enforcement of the rules contributes to this kind of thing happening again. Go soft on one person's misdeeds and you set a precedent.

 

Correctamundo.

Alma, I enjoy reading your intelligent posts more than just about anything on here, but what's the problem with Steve freelancing for money? He obviously had his backyard/beat work taken care of; this is indisputable.

Let's see, there isn't a week that goes by on this board where the indentured servitude pay issue isn't brought up in some way, shape or form. So why is it an issue if Steve makes a little bit of money on the side?

If it is a problem, then there's a lot of people talking out of both sides of their mouths. We don't beat anyone else up for freelancing (see Whitlock, Jason and a plethora of others), so why should we beat up Steve?

I said it before. I'll say it again. There is no logical or rational way to justify what happened to Steve Elling and those who try to rationalize it are wrong. Period.

 

Undeniably true--you see it here every time someone makes a backhanded remark about schlepping agate or covering girls high school badminton.

But when my grade school kids come home with their second grade writing homework, the directions clearly state "USE YOUR OWN WORDS!' Basic life lesson. You wash your hands after you go to the bathroom, you don't look at the other kid's paper during the test, you use your own words when you write a paper. You don't need a college education--much less J-school--to understand that.

 

I'm saying that I don't <i> personally </i> feel sorry for the guy. I mean, taking your stories and padding them for cash is, to me, disingenuous. Of course other journalists do it. What difference does that make to my own ethical paradigm?

Remember, I'm the guy who says newspapers should prevent their reporters from even appearing on radio and TV shows if they're on there just to say "hey, I work for the paper." I'm all the way over to one side on this.