Ron Borges - Plagiarist?

sando's article is so mundane - so boilerplate and lacking in insight, humor, wit, inspiration, turn of phrase - lacking in anything that counts for good writing or journalism - that it doesn't even qualify as something that can be stolen - it has virtually zero value - a novice reporter could have written it while doing his tax returns or cutting the lawn - borges could have done it while taking a dump

it's like accusing people of theft who lift empty tin cans out of trash barrels - taking something that is worthless

borges has had a long and honorable career - there simply is no justification to pile on him

 

What you seem to be saying, Henry, is that Borges is OK with doing this because (a) the original story wasn't very good and (b) Borges has had a long and honorable career.

Stealing is still stealing, and this was a pretty bad example.

 

if the above is true, then ron committed a far bigger sin -- he punished a second set of readers with tripe.

i like ron. wish him well. and hope he keeps his job.

 

Never again should any of us take seriously anything you post, nor should we deem it worthy of a response.

 

ok, so you're saying that something that is written without humor, wit or inspiration can't be stolen.

good lord

 

So, HH, I guess it's like that old story, from a story about sports writing.

Baseball writer shows up to a press box, late and drunk. Misses the game.

Turns to the rival beat guy next to him and begs him for his story. Guy protests, but the drunk keeps at it, so finally, the guy says OK.

Guy takes his copy, cranks some paper into the typewriter and starts clacking away.

After a minute, he says, "To think I've been reduced to copying shit like this."

Henry, it's a short cut, one we don't do in this business.

 

HH,
You would be much more credible if you did not change the basis of you defense of Borges. First, he took only facts. When this claim was dispelled you claimed that uninspired writing can be copied without concern. Give it up.

 

There seems to be a consensus that what Borges did was plagiarism.

Should he be treated any different than Kenny Powers who was fired for a similar offense?

 

I agree. I was involved in one of those on my last beat - used it for my notes column every week because it was more interesting and less time-consuming than sitting on a teleconference for 2 hours every week and sifting through all the BS for 20 inches.
I always just used the quotes and attributed each source by name - as it should be.
If you do less than that, you're playing with fire.

 

Ron has been guilty of this before. And in my eyes, he was guilty. He's a good guy but he tends to get sloppy.

 

A fact is saying Jackson is 28. Cut-and-pasting a three-graf primer on his contract status is not a fact, it's lazy and unfair. It's not piling on to note the difference. Was there any reporting here? Why bother to byline anyone-can-find notes in the first place?