the last of the weekly readings

Missouri Professors: Merrill's Offense Was Plagiarism

A professional journalist and professor emeritus took quotes from a journalism student, and used them in his column without attributing.

not cool--and the journalist's editor thought so too--he discontinued Merrill's column.

However, it set off a debate: is taking quotes from other sources without attribution really plagiarism?

Merrill didn't think so, after all, he claimed it was "unintentional plagiarism." Unintentional or not, it was plagiarism, and he deserved what he got.

Especially since he was supposed to be teaching journalism students to NOT plagiarize.

Poynter Institute criticized the editor's decision, saying that he labeled the journalist for life. Well, that's not the editor's problem. That's the journalist's. If the journalist made a decision to put those quotes in, well then, that's his problem. He made his decision, and now has to live with the consequences he didn't think he'd have to face. And that's tough. Especially to lose your job over 2 quotes that you forgot to attribute, or didn't think that they needed attribution.

some colleagues at the Poynter Institute didn't think that lifting quotes was plagiarism....AMAZING. some of their support was that Merrill was writing a column, and since that wasn't really journalism, he could lift quotes....

(this was recent?!?!?!? wow...)

"Carelessness is not plagiarism"

this is Merrill's response to his column being dropped.

First of all, I am shocked at the start with the title. As a journalist, you are not supposed to be careless. Readers trust you, trust that you have double, triple checked your article for correct facts.

Yes, the carelessness was in the form of not attributing quotes, but nevertheless, readers don't want to know that the people they depend on for their news are liars.

And yes, he was a columnist. I don't care. If the column has news in it, and an opinion on the news, it still counts as journalism to me--because readers will read the column and disregard that the piece is in fact, not a news story, but a piece of opinion. And readers will take those opinions as fact. Or perhaps not, but i think it's the ethical principle of the matter.

And losing a job over not attributing 2 quotes stinks. I would be SOOOO mad at myself. And mad at my boss....after all, the man had worked at the paper for awhile, presumably without any problems.

But in the end, I would know that I made a mistake, and as terrible as it is to be fired over something so minute, the editor did the right thing.

okay so the man, John Merrill, is not a professor, like the Poynter Institute's article made it seem. He WAS a prof, hence the Prof Emeritus title.

And he thought that the quotes were in the public domain. I would think they would be in the public domain if the woman he quoted was at a press conference or speech or something, where there were plenty of journalists. But if the woman said what she said privately, over the phone, like Poynter said, then the quotes were not in the public domain, because they were said to one person and one person only.

he did apologize to the student paper's editor immediately after being accused of stealing quotes. That was good. And in his response, he apologized very nicely to the journalism community.

I still think that his column shouldn't have been cancelled, persay. I would have delayed the column at least for a couple of weeks....allowed him to write, but because I wouldn't be able to trust him that much as an editor, I would have to double check where everything came from, quotes, and even phrases, even though he didn't plagiarize any phrases.

"Places Journalists should go for Politics"

Background candidates-have they worked for a publicly traded company? don't overlook their records...go to the local election office for filings on the candidate, look at the property they own. members of a club or organization? voting records, civil involvement...blah blah blah...do your research...know every aspect of their life.

opensecrets.org allows you to check how much individuals have given to a campaign...so that's a pretty cool tool.

Look at current and past newspaper articles.....

Learn about commercials and how candidates use them...check out websites and blogs that help characterize or explain the election process to you.

as a journalist, you're the expert.
so do your research.
the end.