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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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Wikipedia unmasks plagiarism but gets no credit

The brief article by editor Frank Bridgewater in the January 13 edition of the Honolulu Star Bulletin informs readers that entertainment reporter Tim Ryan has been dismissed for “phrases or sentences that appeared elsewhere before being included, un-attributed, in stories that ran in the Star-Bulletin.” The explanation for Ryan’s firing includes links to the online versions of the offending articles uncovered during an “investigation,” noting that these versions have been appended with corrections or an editor’s note.

The Star-Bulletin takes very seriously any allegations of journalistic misconduct. We know that the integrity of the newspaper is paramount, and we will do whatever is necessary to uphold it.

It might have been a sign of integrity on the Star Bulletin’s part to give credit where it is due. The “items that appeared elsewhere” (isn’t there a word for that? Oh, yeah. Plagiarism.) came from Wikipedia, and it was a Wikipedia editor who sussed out the articles. (You can see a side-by-side comparison in Wikipedia.)

Unfortunately, the Star Bulletin was either unaware of Wikipedia’s allegations or didn’t lend credence to the open source encyclopedia until other papers like the Hawaii Reporter and online sites like Regret the Error began running with the story.

(No plagiarism here. I found the story on Slashdot.)

There are several lessons from the Star Bulletin’s experience. First, take online sources seriously. It makes sense to occasionally run your own company name through Wikipedia—one of the most visited sites on the web—to see what’s being written about you. Writers using Wikipedia (or other online sources) as a resource should do just that, not copy the language wholesale. (Making a few changes to sentence structure doesn’t get you off the hook.) All of which should be painfully obvious, but the Ryan/Star Bulletin experience suggests otherwise.

01/15/06 | 2 Comments | Wikipedia unmasks plagiarism but gets no credit

Comments

  • 1.This story reminds me of a lesson all of us learned in the fourth grade: don't plagiarize. As a student about to graduate college, the one thing that is continually pounded into our heads by professors, is the dangers of plagiarizing. No matter how small or large the offense might be, one will always get caught at some point in time or another. In this field of work (meaning journalism, public relations, communications, etc) writing is everything. You can't make it in this business if you can't write; journalists especially. They are paid to deliver the news to people based on their reporting of a story.

    Jason Blair, of the New York Times, is a classic example of when good writing goes bad. People all over the world refer to the New York Times for factual reporting and writing...this is a given. What people don't expect is to hear of is, a journalist plagiarizing stories and articles, through the use of fake quotes and embellished stories. Michael Olesker, of the Baltimore Sun, is another such example of plagiarizing his articles.

    With increasing numbers of plagiarism cases, the field of journalism is looking more and more like a joke. I respect all journalists and reporters out there who bring the news to people, truthfully, based on their own records of how the story happened. I don't, however, respect those journalists that are "taking the easy way out" so to speak, and simply copying others work for their own benefit. They are the ones that are making a mockery out of journalism.

    Monica | January 2006

  • 2.Monica, I remember the old Tom Lehrer song about the great Lobachevsky, who said:

    "Plagiarize
    Let no one else's work evade your eyes
    Remember why the good Lord made your eyes
    So don't shade your eyes
    But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize
    Only be sure always to call it please research"

    (Complete lyrics here:
    http://www.com-www.com/musiclyrics/lehrertom-lobachevsky.html)

    Shel Holtz | January 2006 | Concord, CA

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