Student sportswriter fired for plagiarism

Looks like he ripped off a Yahoo Sports fantasy column ...

his work:
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cacheHAGmLrZqLEJ:www.lsureveille.com/home/index.cfm%3Fevent%3DdisplayArticlePrinterFriendly%26uStory_id%3D637ebe85-8859-4e09-83a6-20ca825e0c67+%27salty%27+among+several+sweet&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

borrowing from:
http://fantasysports.yahoo.com/analysis/news?slug=ab-rotoarcade_062907&prov=yhoo&type=lgns&league=fantasy/mlb

 

For most of my career I never understood plagiarism.

But now I think the internet can make it tempting for even seasoned guys. I had to do a story the other day on a subject that has been written about for years. I looked through several stories, some that were years old, and found several ideas or phrases I sort of envied. It would have been much easier to take a phrase or sentence rather than get it on my own but obviously I didn't.

What I did do was take some of those ideas and developed them further through a source and took some clever turns of phrase and thought how I could maybe go another direction with a play on words that would apply specifically to my story and the quotes I got.

It worked much better that way. No one could ever look at my story or part of my story and say it looked like another story. Was I inspired by those other stories? Absolutely.

I'm not writing this post to excuse this kid. I'm writing it to tell the younger writers that yes, the temptation is there, but remember there are consequences that will go far beyond what you can imagine. The plus side is that it's always worth doing your own work. You will be a better writer and you will keep your integrity.

 

Did enjoy the comment on the column that compared stealing from a fantasy sports column to taking two pennies from the dish at the gas station when you need one.

In all seriousness, though, I'd be very curious how much this happens and it never gets caught. I was a college paper editor and you begin to trust your reporters and think "None of them would do this ..." It's part of the inherent problem of kids teaching kids.

 

i'm not saying what the kid did was ok because it's not but i can't help but think the editor who wrote the column was doing nothing but grandstanding and showing off her "power" hidden behind her public outrage. whatever happened to college being the place where you make mistakes? again, the kid was wrong for plagiarizing but the editor could have exorcized a little compassion. have the faculty adviser bring the kid in and scold the shit out of him, give him a failing grade if working at the paper was part of a class but the column went too far with the public humiliation.

 

Seems like this has been a fairly consistent problem at this paper, though, so I can see editor deciding it was necessary to make appeal to readers and try to keep their trust.

 

Plus, when you work for a college paper, you tend to take that shit personally. If I found out back when I was my college paper's editor that one of the kids plagiarized I would have probably taken him out back and beat the living shit out of him.

 

well if that's the case then this sort of thing goes back to more than just the kid mentioned in the column and he was just used a the scapegoat, which may indicate a bigger problem with the editor(s) or the adviser that needs to be addressed. again, the kid was wrong but i still think the public humiliation went too far.

 

I think you have to come out publically and state the errors in publication.

This happened at my college paper when an entertainment reporter lifted quotes and copy from an online paper and a band's Web site. We caught the problem on one story before it went to press and when we confronted the reporter about it, he fessed up to one we had missed.

We wrote a brief note with apology on page 2 and were promptly sued by the student. Nothing ever came of the suit and the plaintiffs withdrew their case once we presented them with more evidence (considering we had the guy admitting he did it and we recorded him when he said it).

I briefly walked out of the meeting with our plagiarist because I found myself becoming angry at his stupid excuses (he didn't know it was wrong when I knew he had taken his intro class with a former editor of a major daily who stressed the plagiarism lessons early and often).

 

Plagiarism isn't a mistake you make in college. That'd be like a banker saying embezzlement is a mistake you make in college, or a stock broker saying insider trading is a mistake you make in college.

You don't tolerate plagiarism at any level.

 

I'm pretty sure this is rhetorical question.

 

Yeah, except the temporary windfall of money.

 

yep, out prisons are just bursting at the seams with plagiarists. :