*This post was co-written with Lauren Fernandez.
At 6:34 p.m. Tuesday, college student Hailey Mac Arthur’s* life changed dramatically. Not because she had been fired from her summer internship at The Gazette in Colorado Springs, Co., for plagiarism, but because editor Jeff Thomas posted a brief online apologizing to readers for the incidents. And in the brief, he named her.
Her blunder and Thomas’ brief have quickly spread around the Web and, while some are focusing on the mistake she made, others of us are wondering if Thomas went over the line by naming her. By Wednesday afternoon – less than 24 hours later – she had made her blog private and deleted her Facebook page, Google profile and LinkedIn account.
Lauren Fernandez and I talked about the outing today and we’re both torn on the issue. We could think of reasons Thomas should have named her and reasons he shouldn’t have. So we decided to co-write this blog post to share our thoughts and get your opinions.
Here’s our take.
2 Reasons He Should Not Have Named Her
1. Think about you at 19 years old. Now think about you today. Any differences? She may be a completely different person in five or 10 years, but this is how she’ll be known.
2. Google never forgets. When she’s applying for a job at 30, her potential employer will know about the indiscretion within a few seconds of a quick online search. This could have serious impacts on her future employment.
2 Reasons He Should Have Named Her
1. Plagiarism is one of the most serious offenses in journalism and the crime can quickly erode readers’ trust. The Gazette could distance itself from the act by sharing the fact that the offender was an intern who had been on the job a few weeks or so, not a full-time reporter who had been plagiarizing on the job for months or years.
2. We hate to say this because it’s at someone’s expense, but it may be good for everyone to see the long-term consequences of poor decisions thanks to the permanency of the Web.
What do you think? Should The Gazette have named the intern?
*Some people may think we shouldn’t have included the intern’s name in this post. Our first inclination was to not include it. However, by including a direct link to Thomas’ brief, people reading this post would easily find her name. Plus, there have been several blog posts written elsewhere taking a somewhat harsh stance toward Hailey and these posts are easily findable thanks to Google. We hope this post and your comments add a balanced option to those search results by highlighting and reminding readers about the immediate and long-term impacts this is having on her.
*Image by Logotip.
David spends his days focused on marketing communications strategies and execution. He blogs here regularly about integrated communications, PR and social media.
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Interesting post. I think the key is that the individual is a legal adult, a full-fledged journalism student at one of the top schools of its kind in the world, an individual with previous internship experience, and someone whose plagiarism shows classic signs of premeditation (i.e. this was not a sloppy one-time mistake by a young person). In a way, her experience and previous excellence bury her. You cannot claim “award-winning journalist” status (as she does in the bio of her personal blog) and then not own up to a screw-up of this magnitude, accidental or not. Keep the great posts coming! – Dan
Baring some exception (though I can’t think of any): journalists who commit plagiarism should be fired, and journalism students who commit plagiarism should get kicked out of their program.
With that said–by naming her, Thomas has taken her mistake from something that will likely end her career in journalism to something that can haunt her in any career. As editor of a newspaper, he has a bully pulpit: she can’t match his ability to publish or, as you mention, dominate future search results.
Moral of the story: don’t cut corners–and really don’t cut corners if you’ll make someone who runs a newspaper mad.
It’s an interesting debate. I am definitely conflicted on whether or not she should have been named. I think back to when I was 19 and all of the really stupid things that I have done from back then until now. I am suddenly really glad that to my knowledge none of them are listed on a blog somewhere with my name included (note to self: google self after finishing this comment).
What this young woman did was absolutely completely out of line and really dumb, did she not think that many people read The New York Times? With that said, I am not sure that the punishment fits the crime. She will now forever be known as the plagiarist and I just can’t stop thinking about the fact that now any employer at any point in her career will be able to google her and find an error that she made at the young age of just 19.
I think that she would have learned the same lesson and the paper would not have incurred any more damage without naming her. At this point with the newspaper industry doing so poorly maybe The Gazette should be thanking her as this story probably has more people hearing about The Gazette in Colorado Springs than ever would have without it.
Kate – David and I had the same discussion when talking about the first point of the blog. I think of 4 years ago, when I was 19 and all of the stuff I did. Does that condone her actions? No, but it is definitely something that should be considered when you name her or not. This is a big reason why we couldn’t agree 100 percent with either side, and wanted to start a discussion on it.
In the age of the Internet, the first thing a prospective employer does is Google the person. This, and any coverage talking about it – blog posts included – will always be around.
Thanks for commenting!
Dan,
That’s something that should definitely be pointed out – what was her previous experience? What type of school did she attend, and what type of ethics classes are taught? I wonder if putting a response on her blog, owning up to her actions, would have had any weight. She doesn’t have a newspaper platform to do so, but one of the first things I did was Google her blog.
David,
That’s a great point about intern v. editor, and one David and I talked about a lot. For us, we thought that if anyone should have made a statement, it would have been the publisher.
Thank you both for reading – Great points all around, and the main reason why we couldn’t take one side on this story.
Lauren
There’s no question that the journalist, intern or not, was clearly at fault and in this case, deserving of losing her job. However, what about the responsibility of the editor? Many of us place work in the hands of interns. However, when the results do not meet our expectations, or those of our clients or readers, ultimately it is our responsibility to fix it and/or take the blame.
We have to remember that regardless of how good they are, interns are still 19-22 year olds who are getting their first taste of the real world. I expect the Thomas may have been trying to teach his intern a life lesson, but I also believe he completely rolled her under the bus. I believe he and his editorial staff need to accept some of the blame for the plagiarism having occurred.
In my line of work, if the intern makes a mistake, it costs my agency money. In my opinion, that’s not the intern’s fault, it’s mine for putting them in a position to fail. Thomas ultimately put her in a position to fail and then hung her out to dry for all the world to see. I think that’s just plain wrong.
Donnie,
My question that I posed to David was: An intern was trusted to write bylines and given an incredible opportunity. Why? When I interned in the newsroom, I made coffee, took pitches off the fax and sat in on meetings to learn what it was all about. They obviously had trust in her to do a great job and not commit something unethical. She was treated as a reporter and was representing their brand. I think some responsibility should have been taken on by the paper, since they were the ones who hired her and trusted her to write, but I can also see why they tried to distance themselves as much as possible from her.
Lauren,
By trusting her and essentially treating her as a real employee, I think they set her up for failure. No question some of the blame falls on her, because it appears she squandered a fantastic internship opportunity. I see why they distanced themselves, and in just about every other instance I’ve seen of professional plagiarism the newspaper always outs the reporter.
In this case, I think the paper is just as much at fault for putting her in the position to make that mistake. It’s the editor’s fault for placing someone, who obviously could not be trusted, as a representative of their brand.
It’s a mess, both are at fault, I’d just like to see the paper/publisher/editor take a little more of the blame.
Donnie – Exactly. I have nothing else to add for once.
I think you said it better than I tried — the blame falls both ways, but treating an intern like an employee is setting her up for failure no doubt.
Very well said
I think the blame solely falls in her hands. When they hired her, she had previous experience at two other newspapers – she’s a writer she understands what plagiarism is. We learned it day one in our journalism classes
I can see both sides but after reading Dan’s additional information it pretty black and white. You screw up – you suffer whatever consequences come as a result. We sometimes forget that in this internet age anyone’s mistakes are quick to travel and far reaching. Think of all the celebrities who have said things, and because of mobile information it get’s out and they have to apologize.
I also agree with Lisa though, that she really needs to put her blog back up, deal with all the comments that will be posted, and write a formal apology. (Unless she copies somebody elses. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one.)
Tiffany – I agree. She should address this on her blog and own up to her mistakes. This way, when someone does Google, they could see that she is trying to be responsible and admits to the wrongdoing. By taking everything down, she is committing a crisis comm faux paus – ‘never say anything’ is not the way to go.
I agree with that — while, I think that what her editor did was too harsh — I think, if she wrote an open letter on her blog, and linked back, the ping would show up.
It would show she was being open and fessing up to a mistake.
That would be smart.
Then again, we don’t know what’s going on inside her head. We could speculate all we want, but what if the entire situation is really hurting her mentally? I mean you never know what went on behind closed doors.
And to close off all of her social accounts, just like that? Hmm…I think that there is a lot more to the situation that just meets the eye.
Maybe I’m wrong. But no one will ever know except the people involved.
I question the reasoning for the editor naming her, but I do not see an issue with it. She is a legal adult and when she took the internship, she accepted the same responsibility that’s placed upon every journalist. Ethics is a huge, huge issue within the field of journalism and should not be taken lightly. There’s no excuse at that age to know that stealing someone else’s work is wrong. You’re taught that beginning in middle school.
We live in an age where people think they deserve to be given things and that they’re owed something from society. I’m sorry, but accountability is something she needs to learn.
And yes, who knows what will happen in 10 years, but what if this just got swept under the rug? Who’s to say it wouldn’t still be happening in 5-10 years?
I say good for the editor. We need to stand up and make people accountable for their actions. We expect Domino’s and other companies to own up to their mistakes, why shouldn’t we demand the same from those behind the brands?
@kmskala
As an intern, I will be the first to say making ANY kind of mistake, let alone plagiarism is absolutely unacceptable, ever. But, at the same time, I think this could have been easily resolved with a simple, “an intern who was new to the job, but shall not be named” would have been fine. This takes most of the blame off of the newspaper, and doesn’t blacklist a 19 year old intern. If people really dug, I am sure they could have found her name, but it would have almost eliminated the possibility of a future employer Googleing her and seeing she plagiarized.
I also have to disagree some with Donnie, from an intern’s perspective, being given a chance to really make an impact is why you become an intern, because it is the only real way to get experience that will transfer into the work world. But I will agree with him that the editor, or whoever was supervising, should have had a much closer watch on her sources and how she was going about researching and writing the story.
Making any kind of mistake is unacceptable? Really? That seems a little harsh. I think you should be allowed some mistakes as an intern. Maybe not this big of a one, but some error should be allowed for even for a regular employee.
Sorry, I meant it only as it is unacceptable to yourself as an intern to make a mistake, because everything you do is trying to earn you a job, and every mistake could be costly. And it is especially bad to purposely cut corners like this, especially as severe a corner as she cut.
Initially, I thought the paper was wrong for outing its intern, but after giving it more thought, I think they did what was right. Plagiarism is a cardinal sin in the communications field. This isn’t a fact or skill students can’t learn until they have real-world experience – it’s something that is ingrained in our minds the day we decide we want to be professional writers. For this reason, I believe the editor did right by its readers, employees, and the journalism community by writing a completely open and honest explanation and apology.
Unfortunately, this mistake will greatly impact her future, but this is the consequence of plagiarism. I’m sure Stephen Glass – who, forget Google results, had a major movie made at his expense – doesn’t feel much sympathy for her.
Thanks for the great discussion starter!
Meg – You’re exactly right in the fact that the editor owed an explanation to its readers, employees and the journalism community – and it should be very open and honest. Plagiarism is not something that should just get a slap on the wrist – the journalism community is built on ethically presenting information in an unbiased manner.
I completely forgot about Stephen Glass – but that’s a great point.
My high school journalism teacher made us watch “Shattered Glass” the first week of classes. After watching that movie, I was terrified of committing plagiarism. My point is that the blame lies with the intern on this one – everyone in journalism, no matter how far along in their studies or career – knows that copying someone else’s work and using it as your own is wrong. Had she made an error that she couldn’t learn without real world experience, I would say the editorial staff would be more at fault than her and shouldn’t have used her name.
Meg – Agreed. Considering as well that she called herself an “award-winning journalist” in her blog, she should have known better, and that it was wrong.
However, when an employee makes a mistake, a lot of the time the manager is also held at fault. Should it be this way? Why or why not? It’s a question that has always bothered me. Everyone is their own person, but someone should have been checking her work closely as she was an intern – and someone representing their paper through bylines. Frankly, if I were the paper I would be extremely angry. This shines a bad light on their reputation and makes their readers question their reporter selection. Distancing might have been the best option for that reason alone.
This is a very interesting topic with some great feedback thus far. As bad as this might hurt the intern’s reputation, companies generally hold interns to the same expectations as full-time employees (I know I was). Therefore, when you do something as ballsy as plagiarizing for a Top 100 newspaper, I would expect nothing less than a strong reprimand. Especially since she plagiarized from a newspaper with the 3rd highest circulation. If we are trying to teach students the ins and outs of journalism, holding one another accountable is a must; regardless of whether she was an intern or not. I’m not sure if throwing her under the bus on the internet is the best punishment but somehow I am not surprised. But, I do agree with Lauren, she needs to do something to show she is owning up to this mistake and taking responsibility for her actions.
Adrienne – We thought that too. Why did she plagiarize from a newspaper with the caliber of the NYT? That is pretty ballsy, as you said. Accountability is a huge issue in the journalism world, so this might have been the best path and might not have.
Great discussion though, right? You guys are always making me think.
As a former journalist, this issue is VERY black and white. Intern or not, (and aged 19 or not) if she was put into a position to write news stories and plagiarized another person’s work (which seems obvious based on the examples) then she has to be called out for it and subsequently let go. Plagiarism is THE cardinal sin in the journalism world, and it’s not like we all can’t point to a number of examples off the top of our heads (including the NYT’s themselves). And in most cases the punishment for it is dismissal, plain and simple.
While it is the editor’s job to ensure that her work is of a high quality, there’s no way that he would know she was pulling similar things from other stories unless it was brought to his/her attention. Also, one thing to keep in mind, the publication itself has a journalistic reputation that it must protect. If it has a reporter who is copying other material and not giving it proper reference, then that’s a breach of trust with the public that reads it, and that must be addressed. People can’t be led to believe that this is a common practice. That’s why the details of who she is, her background, the indiscretion, and why she was let go had to be made public. The other reporters and editors have to continue to be taken seriously and have to have that trust in place. This is damaging to the paper’s overall reputation and brand. By being transparent (and subsequently letting the employee go) they are admitting the mistake, reinforcing their commitment to journalistic standards, and moving on.
I hate to be harsh but if she was plagiarizing and clearly wanted to be a journalist, then she certainly didn’t know the most basic rules. Maybe the paper is at fault a bit for hiring her in the first place, but these mistakes are hers to own up to and answer for, no matter how old she is. She took the position, and took on the responsibility of writing stories – that’s a big deal. If she didn’t feel she was ready, she shouldn’t have taken the internship, or spoken up. You have to realize that you’re held to a higher standard and that there are rules/ethics in place for a reason as a journalist of any kind. If she wasn’t willing/able to follow those, then the rest of the paper can’t suffer as a result.
David and Lauren,
Very insightful post on a vital topic. While I am not a journalism student, I am interning in the communications field and plagiarism (or any similar offense) is never something to be taken lightly. So on that note I definitely agree with firing her from the internship, and wouldn’t be opposed if her school suspended her.
On the other hand, because she is young and still a student, I disagree with the editor’s decision to publish her name. As an intern, mistakes are bound to happen since the intern is still becoming adjusted to the professional world and still learning (learning is a lifelong process, and mistakes can create the greatest lessons). If you didn’t make mistakes, then why would a company hire you as an intern instead of giving you a full-time position? The point is that interning is an immensely important learning experience, with a new hefty dose of responsibility, and this young woman now must learn from committing the biggest sin in journalism.
I feel no sympathy for her in regards to being let go, but I can’t help but feel bad that her name has been tainted online, and instead of being able to learn from her grave mistake, it appears that the editor has completed that lesson for her.
A quick question, I did not see the time-line of her articles, but does anyone know the fact checking process that occurs at newspapers, particularly if they are stories that are on a tight deadline?
Best,
Rich
I’m going to slightly disagree with you. Companies don’t hire an intern with the basis on knowing they will make mistakes. Making or not making mistakes is not a determining factor in hiring someone full-time as opposed to hiring an intern.
The basis of being an intern is to gain valuable experience. Something a 19 year old needs. We cry foul when interns are given little responsibility, but then when an intern is given responsibility and makes a huge error, we simply pass it off as them being an intern.
It all boils down to accountability. As a journalist, your reputation and accountability are the foundation in which you try to build. It wasn’t a one time occurence, it appears to have happened more than one time. That makes me think that she knew exactly what she was doing. Especially since she referred to herself as an award-winning journalist? on her blog.
I’m torn, as well, but in the end, I have to agree with the decision, as harsh as it may seem. 19 isn’t as young as we think it is.
- She was smart enough to land an internship at the Gazette.
- She’d spent enough time in the education system to understand the ramifications of plagiarism.
- With the recent accusations against Elizabeth Hasselbeck & Chris Anderson, there’s no doubt that the act of plagiarism is rampant and must be dealt with strictly to prevent it’s growth, considering how easy it is to rip off content from any online news outlet or blog.
It’s one thing to take a blog post and use it as inspiration for your own, or follow up on the issue. In fact, I intend on taking this comment and posting it to my own blog, but I plan on crediting Lauren and David with opening the dialogue on the issue.
Lax standards will only make it more likely that others would follow in her ways. Of course, I feel bad. This will probably irreparably damage her vocational potential, but if she’s guilty of plagiarism, does she really deserve a career as a journalist? Shouldn’t her potential future employers at news websites and media outfits be aware of her grievousness before hiring her?
Again, I know it seems harsh, but if the media industry doesn’t put their collective feet down and nip this problem in the bud, we’re looking at a future of saturated with outrageous intellectual property litigation between bloggers, journalists, writers, and media outlets…
We need to sort out this mess, lay down protocol and standards NOW, before the problem grows. It sucks that Hailey had to be the one, but at the very least, her blunder has forced us to investigate and debate the issue…hopefully leading to what might become a universal set of practices meant to deal with this problem.
- David (@Aerocles)
Okay so here’s a question (and if I’ve missed something my apologies) but assume for the moment they didn’t “out” her. If they posted an apology wouldn’t they refer to the article? And if they did refer to the article wouldn’t that “out” her? It would have looked dishonest/sleazy somehow to me if they apologized while naming the article but not the writer.
Scott, I think they did refer to her specifically in their apology. However, I still believe this information would have and could be easily uncovered even if they had not “outed” her. With that said, I think the important issue here is not the fact that he name was reveled by the paper itself, but that we need to be conscious of the fact, regardless of age, that we are responsible for our own actions and especially in a professional environment, to give credit where credit is due…it’s not that hard, is it?
Scott – they pulled the articles she had written from the web site. So, in theory, you wouldn’t have been able to search for them to learn her byline.
I only recently turned 20 and I think the editor was right to name her. At my age, internships are seen as amazing opportunities to be earned and any other student would have happily taken her spot. She surrendered her right to certain privacies when she plagiarized. She must have had a good portfolio in order to be awarded the position to begin with, so I don’t doubt that teachers drilled it into her brain that plagiarism is an unforgivable offense. I hate to say this because she is my age, but she deserves the repercussions. With all the technology, circulation of news, and reader participation today, it is easy to get caught plagiarizing and she should have been aware of that.
I echo everyone else in saying the publication’s first priority is to its readers, not to the intern and it was a necessary action. I would have expected the same result had I plagiarized.
This is a really interesting case. I feel that there are various levels of plagiarism. I remember in college, professors would classify a simple mistake in citing a source as plagiarism, and wonder on what level this certain instance of plagiarism took place. I feel that a blatant and severe case would justify the organization using her name in the article, however, a minor error, misstep in the citing process, or incidenta
*continued from the last post…*incidental case may not warrant this type of public, embarrassing, and permanent punishment.
Interesting point about the level of plagiarism, Chris. If the industry standard is to call out plagiarism, though, shouldn’t they call out everyone? I don’t know if it can be a case by case basis – because its plagiarism, nonetheless. I see what you mean, though.
Thanks for reading!
I think the bad far outweighs the good here. Yes, firing her was obvious. But young professionals can make mistakes and still move on to a successful career. The paper could easily have let its readers know an intern make the mistake and not naming her (which is all it needed to do to gain and retain readers’ respect). Naming adds nothing, but it certainly kills any chance of her getting that next job and learning to become a stellar journalist. A mistake at 19 that doesn’t kill someone shouldn’t ruin your future. It’s a disservice to her and to the trade, if you ask me.
He shouldn’t have named her. He is the editor and he hired her (I presume). She is young & inexperienced, new to the field. In the end it’s his paper and his hit to take.
So many good comments here.
David and Lauren: Yes, I agree the paper and editor needed to address the plagiarism, disclose it, apologize and correct it.
On outing the writer, I think once they gave her a byline, they had little choice but to name her and fire her. (And Scott, I agree it would have looked odd to mention the articles but not name the writer).
Donnie: The online brief quickly disassociates the paper from her, identifying her as a “college student doing a summer internship,” and since the stories have been pulled, I cannot see if that title was always included in her byline.
An internship is not just a line on a resume. An internship is about learning skills, furthering education and yes, on-the-job training. I agree with you that the editor, paper and other supervisors should have taken more of the blame, accepted some culpability for not properly supervising and editing the work of an intern.
Max: People make mistakes, interns and veteran pros alike (as Meg mentioned, Shattered Glass). This mistake was a Whopper, and this intern will possibly suffer for these grave indiscretions for the rest of her career.
While they may not be “acceptable, ever” mistakes are part of the human and professional experience. This intern needs to own her mistakes, and as others have suggested, reopen her blog, post an apology and accept the due criticism.
Very interesting debate…and I really could fight for either side.
Plagiarism is a HUGE offense in college (at least at Tennessee it was), and you could get expelled for it. A journalism student should know this…in fact, it should have been ingrained in her head! So she was definitely in the wrong here…
However, she IS going to be punished for this for the rest of her career. Like you said, Google doesn’t forget and every job she applies for will know that she did this at 19 years old…so it’s a double-edged sword.
Is it right for her to be punished forever? Perhaps she will learn from the mistake and never do this again, yet she’ll be thought of as a plagiarist from here on out.
I guess you’re right tho – it does show young professionals the long-term consequences of certain actions. Regardless of whether him outing her was right or wrong, this is a good lesson for college students…
As a former internship coordinator at my PR company, and someone who started here as an intern many years ago, I see a major breach of trust.
If she plagiarized, the Cardinal Sin of Journalism, she should obviously be fired.
However, the role of a supervisor/mentor is to teach.
As an intern, I know I messed up. None of my interns over the years have batted 1.000, either.
Students can only learn by doing, so they take internships and companies need help, so they trust interns with varying degrees of responsibility. It’s a match made in heaven.
But one an intern messes up, you CAN NOT judge them on the same scale of someone who is a salaried employee. Fire them for big sins? Sure, if you feel that is the best way to teach them a lesson.
Calling out this student’s mistake publicly, instead of letting her put her tail between her legs and learn her lesson quietly, keeps the story in the newscycle longer. I don’t quite understand the editor’s goal for this. Will it attract readers? Doesn’t it shine a dark light on the paper for hiring and publishing the lying intern?
The paper took an opportunity to teach a lesson and made it into the worst-case scenario.
I’ve fired interns for cause, but I would never publicly embarrass them.
Mike – Thanks for your perspective, especially since you have been an intern coordinator. You bring up one of the points that David and I discussed – students learn by doing, and a supervisor should be teaching. Also, the scale of judgment is different, even though she made the cardinal mistake of journalism and deserved to be fired.
Mike you bring up a really interesting point:
“Calling out this student’s mistake publicly, instead of letting her put her tail between her legs and learn her lesson quietly, keeps the story in the newscycle longer. I don’t quite understand the editor’s goal for this. Will it attract readers? Doesn’t it shine a dark light on the paper for hiring and publishing the lying intern? ”
What is the ultimate goal? I am trying to understand that. It definitely attracted readers with good and bad but isn’t it somewhat true that the mistakes our interns make reflect on us? I think outing the intern was a bit harsh. I have my first intern now and I believe it is our duty to teach them and mentor them.
They are going to make mistakes and I think that some of those mistakes are due to their mentor. Perhaps as mentors we left something out, granted plagiarism is something that any communications student should know about, but we have to take some blame for these mistakes. I remember my internships and I know I made mistakes. Granted they weren’t illegal but I wasn’t perfect. I think firing her from her internship and perhaps informing her school about the incident and letting them deal with some ramifications would have been enough of a lesson.
This will undoubtedly damage her career. I would like to think that future employers would give her a second chance but its unlikely.
Great discussion, folks…
Sure, the editor’s action seems a bit harsh. But I tend to side with the editor on this one for two reasons:
–First, the newspaper has a duty to its advertisers and readers to let them know it’s in the business of putting out a quality journalism product. Plagiarism is one of the most serious offenses there is, a true cardinal sin of journalism. It’s the kind of thing that, if not dealt with openly and frankly, could erode the public’s trust in the media outlet. I see the editor’s actions as a sort of damage control/crisis PR, and those actions are well within their rights in this situation.
–It’s a simple chicken or the egg scenario – which came first? The intern’s mistake – and a serious one at that – elicited the reaction. It could be argued that both sides are at fault here, but the intern screwed up first. Can’t blame the editor for that at all.
It’s too bad this had to happen, and that the intern couldn’t have learned this lesson before she learned it the hard way. Let’s all hope this discussion leads to a renewed resolve to give credit where credit is due.
@JasonSprenger
Quite the conversation going on here – great stuff and thoroughly deserved by a great co-post.
I think if the NY Times had to let an employee (or intern) go for disciplinary reasons, you have to be upfront about it. Whether the naming and shaming in public was right? Probably not. Why not fire the intern, if that’s their decision, and make an apology to readers advising they found the situation and the employee in question has been removed, and stricter editorial guidelines will be put in place?
The girl was guilty, but come on – she’s 19, just starting a career. Maybe the pressure was on to provide time-scheduled copy and was getting to her? Maybe the editor was being pushy and she felt she wanted to impress (especially at such an eminent publication) and she resorted to desperate measures?
Ruining a career through Google juice isn’t the way to build better journalists. Or PR pro’s. Or marketers. Or any professions. Showing them their faults and guiding will offer much more beneficial results in the long run.
And the editor should have checked more.
Thanks, Danny!
Your points were exactly why we couldn’t take one side on the issue – and why we wanted to open up the conversation. The pressure was also something I brought up with David – the intensity of a newsroom, deadlines, etc. is really hard, even for the most seasoned reporters. It doesn’t excuse her in the least, but it is an interesting point to make.
I like how you thought the response should have been – apologize because readers come first, but also mention that stricter guidelines will be in place.
Thanks for commenting.
I don’t think there’s a clear “yes” or “no” answer to whether she should have been named. According to several articles I read, she was a repeat offender when it came to plagiarizing in her writing. Internships are about learning and this could have been a lesson she learned the first time it happened. Based on the fact she did it more than once, it seems she didn’t learn much from her mistake, and at that point, it should have been her that took accountability for the errors, not her editor calling her out on the internet.
Instead of confronting the issue, taking ownership, apologizing and explaining what she learned from this error, she ran and hid–deleting all her social media accounts in hopes no one would find her. I would challenge her to face the music, get back online, and start with a blog post about what she learned. Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s how we deal with them and learn from them that really makes the difference. Google will never forget her plagiarism, so it’s in her best interest to give Google something to counteract it, too, with things written in her own words.
Many people probably feel sorry for her because she is an intern. Critics probably would not show the same compassion to a full-time employee. If a financial company intern was embezzling money, wouldn’t people want to know about it? If an chemistry intern blew up a lab, wouldn’t people want to know about it? I don’t think an intern should be off the hook just because they are an intern. Interns are professionals in training, and should be held accountable for their actions.
I’ve taken the time to read through Lauren and David’s points, followed by reading through the entire discussion, and first let me say that this is one amazingly active community!
Plagiarism is as it’s been noted several times the “cardinal sin”, however not just in Journalism. Plagiarism can ruin anyone’s career, be they a newspaper intern, or a professor at a tier 1 research facility. Recently I’ve seen two cases of plagiarism happen close to home. One was a student who plagiarized in their English class. The student failed the class, but was not removed from the university. She did fight the failing grade though. Her claim was that she didn’t know any better. Her failing grade stood.
Secondly, and most recently, I’ve seen a person have their master’s degree taken away from them because of plagiarism. The real shocking point for this is that the degree was awarded nearly 30 years ago. This is further proof of how far reaching the consequences of plagiarism can become.
19 years-old, years of classroom experience with the “no cheating” rule that has been a part of our lives since primary school, an “award winning journalist” and an awesome internship opportunity, squandered. It’s obvious this discussion isn’t about whether or not Hailey knew any better, it’s plain to see that she does. This is not a mistake anyone should be allowed to make and then not face dire repercussions over. I’ll stand with my fellow interns on this, we’re all young, we all mistakes, but we all know that plagiarism is wrong. No matter what institute we come from.
Should the editor have ousted her for all of us to see that she made an error of judgment? Would we even question this action if she wasn’t an intern? I don’t think the editor has made any mistakes in naming her. It’s as was said earlier, the standards need to be set now, and as sad as it is to see someone so young to be the example, it needed to be done. Hailey’s story is one that needs to go out to all students.
I will agree with the couple of you that Hailey needs to open her blog again and issue an apology. The sooner she owns up to her mistakes, the better her reputation will stand in the long run. She’s starting off again on a very low rung of the ladder, but if she’s as strong as she claims to be, she’ll make it back.
I cannot post this without at least acknowledging the fact that the editor totally threw this poor girl under the bus. They’re the editor, deadline or not, all of the intern’s work should be rigorously checked. The NYT is highly visible and I’d like to believe the editor should have been aware of the plagiarism, though it’s quite a stretch of the imagination.
To close: She knew better. She knows what she did wrong. Being fired from the Gazette is the least of her concerns. She needs to get some good press on her side (Start with an apology dear.). Being outed like this stinks, but it had to happen to someone. Student everywhere, be careful, pay attention and never cheat.
Plagiarism is extremely stupid and the examples used in the above are particularly egregious. However, do you really wreck this girls life over that? She’s 19. I’m sure she’s learned her lesson by being fired. Don’t think we need to Google Nuke her life.
I like the phrase “Google Nuke.” And very valid points, S, as always.
Lauren
This is a tough one.
While I completely agree with her firing, I also agree with some of your readers that the newspaper should’ve taken more accountability for the mistake.
The newspaper will definitely incur some backlash from posting that brief, and I’m sure people will question the credibility of their staff as they managed to hire and give incredible responsibility to someone unfit for the role — as a reporter, not necessarily as an intern. And maybe some of that backlash could’ve been prevented if the editor hadn’t mentioned her at all.
Naming names wasn’t the most reasonable reaction — it seems as if it was done out of anger and fear of the consequences to the editor more than it was done to actually remedy the situation.
Now, onto the fix. We can hope the anger and reactions gets tossed out the window and both parties handle the situation from here on out a little more responsibly.
Great discussion.
Great discussion. She REALLY needs to get her blog back up, apologize, show what she has learned, and face this head on if she has any hopes of resurrecting her career. Create a blog on how to be creative without resorting to plaigairsim for people who could make the same mistakes she did. Hit back hard. Show the world this changed your life. The worst thing you can do is hide.
There are many good points here, but is the damage irreparable? She has an opportunity to use her blog to admit she made a mistake, apologize for it, not place the blame on anyone but herself, and write about how this has affected her. If she does that sincerely, maybe with the assistance of a mentor (someone had to have recommended her for the internship) she might be able to salvage something here. If she can show some maturity and grace, that will become part of what future potential employers see. Having said that, cheating is cheating, and there are many times when the cheaters don’t get called out. Tough situation all around.
Ellen – Exactly what we thought. The only platform she has to stand on is her own blog. By deleting everything, she really is just making it worse.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
After reading the post and the great deal of comments, it’s still a tough one to give a definite answer.
If it was a student that was just getting into journalism and didn’t quite understand the severity of their actions, I’d say definitely keep the name quiet.
In her blog bio she described herself as an “award-winning” journalist. She’s had experience at other publications before. While she was young and still in very early stages of her career, I wouldn’t say that she was naive to the severity of plagiarism.
Big opportunity comes with big risk. The Gazette, being the large publication it is, also has a large reputation, and therefore large liability. If she plagiarized while working for a smaller publication with less liability, naming her might not have been necessary. Perhaps it wasn’t even necessary in this situation.
Did they have to name her? I think they could have gotten away without it. I can understand the reasoning/concept though…
large publication = large reputation = large liability = large responsibility to disclose mistakes = large punishment for Hailey.
David
D – Great point about the size of the publication – because they definitely have a lot to lose. The reputation means that much more, and if you land an internship there, you should respect it. The fall can be big if its a larger publication – would it be circulating as much in a smaller market? Probably not. Do I think it could have been stated differently? Yes.
Hmm, this is a very interesting case. But I would have to say that I *DO NOT* believe she should have been ousted:
1) As you said, Google has a memory. I do not think that anyone should have to pay for such a sin, they made at age 19 for the rest of their lives.
2) There is book smart and street smart. Obviously, this 19-year old has no street smart or common sense and decided to take the easy way out. But that by no means should justify ostracizing her from society and black-listing her for life.
3) I remember, when I was 19. Not going to lie, I did some stupid things. Other people did stupider things than me. But I learned and I grew. I’m still learning.
4) Plagiarism is indeed a serious offense, but we are talking about a smaller paper here. In a small community. There is no need to do that. The editor should have simply said, “it was an intern who has been here a few weeks and is learning. We will rectify the situation according to our companies policies.”
It was a careless mistake on her part – an even more careless response on her editors part and I think, personally, it’s rather spiteful.
@SashaHalima
BTW, when I say smaller and community — I meant in contrast to the New York Times or the Wallstreet Journal. Not in terms of like small town Middle American papers.
Wow – great, thought-provoking post, David and Lauren. And after reading all the comments, too, I’m still undecided on the major question – should the editor have outed her this way? – but I do want to mention a few things.
A lot of people have talked about mistakes. And yes, this certainly was a mistake, but there’s no way it could have been an accident. There’s a difference.
As Nicole said, “Plagiarism is a HUGE offense in college … A journalism student should know this…in fact, it should have been ingrained in her head!”
I’ve been reading and signing “no-plagiarism” pledges since high school. I think journalism students especially need to aware of the illegality of plagiarism because they are potentially the most likely to commit it — but everyone knows it’s wrong. I have no doubt that this 19-year-old knew exactly what she was doing.
And she deserved to be fired for that. Now, I’m still torn on whether she should have been named. On the one hand, I feel like losing the internship and the esteem of those colleagues is embarassing. And I’m sure future employers – should she even choose to include this experience on her resume – would inquire about the internship, and that would not only be embarassing but might also prevent her from getting the job.
On the other hand, there’s a [mean-spirited] part of me that thinks this girl – who calls herself an “award-winning journalist” and who I (having never met her and really knowing nothing about her) think seems like a conniving, malicious person – this girl deserves to be publicly outed. Sew a scarlet “P” on her clothes.
@libbykrah
Libby – This is a great in-depth description of why David and I were so torn. I also liked that you mentioned the pledges – I remember doing this in some of my journalism classes, and especially in HS. It has been ingrained in us from the start. I do think she deserved to be fired, but I am still torn if it was handled correctly in calling her out.
Great comment. Thanks!
I see a common trend in this discussion – Google ruining her career. Another example of being accountable. Why not get the blog up, give whatever info she feels she needs to and move on. Why not work hard, prove yourself and put this behind you.
Al Gore, Joe Bidden – all have plagarized. Didn’t seem to hurt them. Executives from Fortune 500 companies have been fired and been able to move on.
This isn’t the end of her career. This is a big hurdle she now has to overcome, but let’s not get too dramatic. If she honestly wants to be a credible journalist, I’m sure she can do enough in the next 4 years to rid herself of this label.
I don’t think it will ruin any chance that she has to get a job – but I’m also not sure that any big name publication would hire her. She did plagiarize the New York Times, which is a huge offense.
However, I think if she addresses it now, she might have a better chance of getting a journalism job in the future. She could also issue an apology when she addresses it – which will show the maturity that she didn’t have when she plagiarized from the NYT.
There is no doubt in my mind that she should have been fired, called out publicly for what she did and delivered an apology to her readers. The trust that develops between journalists and their audience is sacred, or at least it should be.
Let’s not forget that this was not a one-time mistake. This was a deliberate act of plagiarizing other people’s work at least four times.
I teach part time at the Michigan State University School of Journalism. Our students know that one act of plagiarism is grounds for flunking the class and, possibly, dismissal from the school.
If the news industry loses credibility it is worthless. When it comes to plagiarism, there should be no tolerance and no exceptions.
Hi Ari,
Something occurred to me when reading comments. Do you also think this will cast a bad shadow on UF’s program – and those that have a degree from there? I read somewhere that the dean of the school at UF had a FB status update about this incident. What are your thoughts?
Lauren
Hi Lauren,
The graduate of any university program receives not just a degree, but a stamp of approval from that institution. The university you graduate from certainly can’t be held responsible for you your entire career – but at this point in her career? Yes, someone at UF had better be reviewing what they are teaching, how they are teaching it and why, in this case, they obviously didn’t get through to at least one student.
Ari
Ari – Agreed. I also wonder, though, if it will have an effect on an employer looking through a UF student’s resume – will they correlate this incident with all students who graduate from there?
Lauren,
I would hope not, and it’s not fair if employers were to equate the actions of one person with an entire graduating class. Having said that, if I were a UF recent grad looking for work, I’d be sure I knew this story inside and out and be ready to respond to a question about it with my take on the situation.
Whether we want to believe it or not, we see our ‘work family’ more often than we do our own. So when you ‘out’ someone in the family, you’re cutting to the bone. Yes, she should have been reprimanded; yes, it is a SERIOUS NO-NO; but taking the news out to the public was extreme.
Think about it, unless you are ready to air out your own foibles and mistakes (and we’ve ALL had our own fair share of ‘oops’ moments – big and small), there’s no reason to take it to that level.
I like how you referred to it as a ‘work family’, N. Sometimes we forget how close-knit everyone is in a work environment.
Great post. Outing her is a tough choice. When some one plagiarized an interview with me, I didn’t out them because I felt bad.
When this girl wronged the newspaper, they outed her. After having it happen to me (and my reach is FAR less than this newspapers), I no longer feel bad for the girl. Students of any profession need to learn to do their work the right way. If she messed up, now she has to pay the price. She made the road ahead of her much tougher for her now.
This is really tough, I can see both sides of the debate.
Very interesting post. My problem with The Gazette naming the intern is that it comes across as though they are singilng her out and trying to distance themselves from her, as well as act as though they are not accountable. Now why they are not responsible for what the intern did, they are indeed accountable. They are the ones who hired her, and this makes the accountable for any mistakes she makes during her time there.
I think the apology could have been effectively done without naming her. I think the Gazette should have taken the blame as a company, taking a unified front towards what happened, instead of singling the intern out and acting like they had nothing to do with it.
There is no doubt that the intern did wrong in plagiarizing, especially when given this grand opportunity. Yet I do believe the editor went a bit overboard by naming her as means of teaching her a lesson and clarifying mistakes to their audience. This reminds me of “The Scarlett Letter” in a sense. Perhaps this incident will haunt her for a few years, but I believe she will be given another chance somewhere down the road if she continues as a journalist. The one fact she will need to overcome at this point is someone cross-checking her work for any future forms of plagiarism (which by the way….should have been done in the first place to prevent such instances).
Although the intern committed the greater wrong, the editor is also at fault for blindly leaving such responsibilities, in addition to the reputation of the newspaper, in hands of an intern regardless of her educational background and work experience. Much like she failed her ethical journalism background by plagiarizing, so to did the editor though lack of adecquate mentoring and assistance to his intern.
I think the main issue I have with this is that in my eyes this is not a “young professional’s” or “intern’s” mistake, this is an ethical mistake. As stated time and time again throughout the comments, Plagiarism is a big NO NO in journalism (any profession for that matter). I can’t think of an excuse that there should be any exception, or that it is someone else is at fault for giving her that responsibility to begin with. I also wonder, as a journalism student, how there is any possibility I could not foresee the consequences of my actions, especially when it comes to plagiarism. Pony up and take responsibility, and like many have suggested, use your blog to state your sincere apologizes and correct your wrongdoings
Nicole – This was our thought too, which is why we worded it the way we did with the “Reasons they shouldn’t have.” We didn’t want to give her an excuse for committing something that shouldn’t have an exception.
Great points, and thanks for reading.
My initial reaction was that she should not be named but after thinking about it, I really agree with the newspaper editor, If you haven’t had a chance to review her google profile, you should. She held herself as an award winning journalist. I think some people are getting hung up on the “intern” title. If she had been a 20-year old writer employed by the paper (i.e., not an intern but a full time employee), would it be as difficult to draw the line?
Also, when you realize that she was plagiarizing articles from 10 or 20 years ago, you realize that she was definitely thinking that she was not going to get caught (BTW, I wonder how she got caught? What led them to suspect plagiarism?). She obviously thought she had figured out a way to beat the system – it wasn’t a sloppy mistake…it was devious and sneaky.
Interesting read and great comments though!
Plagiarism is wrong. But why wasn’t she supervised? I check everything my interns do. When they screw up, it’s a reflection on me. So – either she violated the trust of her boss such that it was harder than usual to catch the plagiarism, or the office is not doing a good enough job of supervising.
I’m only a couple years older than this girl, and I completely agree with the editor. I’m not a journalist, but the common sense that you simply can’t steal somebody’s work and call it your own has been seared into my brain over and over in nearly every class I have ever taken. I’m sure the same goes for her. If she is willing to copy and paste (maybe she did it with her new iPhone) at 19, she would move on (emotionally and professionally) from getting fired for it. Now that her name is out, she won’t have that option.
This may wreck her career, but that will be up to future employers as it should be. Her mistake should be public for any possible employer, and it will be her job to prove she has improved her judgment – not hide the past. As mentioned before, she is an adult with training and prior professional experience, she made the choice, this is the real-world consequence.
- @sjhalestorm
Great thought provoking post and situation. There are so many great answers and comments here.
Much is being made of the fact that this intern is 19 years old, but I can tell you that when I was 19 years old, I was an employed journalist while still in college. I hadn’t been to journalism school yet, but I already knew about plagiarism and why it is one of the deadly sins for writers. And I think Iearned this in 8th or 9th grade, you know?
What is interesting to me is that somehow she was assigned stories that exactly matched four articles in the New York Times. I’m wondering if she brought forth the story ideas and asked to be assigned to them or if her assignment editor culled the NYT for story ideas and assigned them to her. To me, this answers some of the it’s her fault/it’s her employer’s fault questions.
If her employer gave her clips of an NYT article and told her to localize it and then did not catch the plagiarism (four times), the person who was supervising her did a lousy job and deserves censure too. They had an opportunity to catch her mistake and make it a teachable moment before it was ever published. They could have fired her from her internship then without the Google nuking and without ever breaching the public’s trust by printing articles that contained plagiarism. But I think her plagiarism is definitely a firing offense.
If she came up with the story ideas herself, asked to be assigned to them and then copied them, the fault lies entirely with her. I don’t think there’s any way a mentor would have thought to ask “Hmm, I wonder if there’s any plagiarism from the New York Times here?” — unless she showed them her source material and admitted she had seen the story somewhere else first.
These are some really random stories. Sheep shearing? A relative’s death? Homelessness?
While I do empathize with her public outing and her young age, I second (or third, or fourth) many of you who are urging her to open her blog, post an apology and try to offset the electronic baggage that will follow her around.
I disagree with naming the intern and agree with the previous poster that there is blame to go around. Interns need supervision and this mistake should have been caught before it went to press. Also, there is a bit of hypocrisy in outing her by name, when after all some of the largest papers in the country, leading academics and gov’t leaders have been guilty of the same. Not to say she shouldn’t have been fired, but its not right to ruin her career at the age of 19 either.
What a troubling story on so many levels. I’m not a fan of publicly calling someone out by name with the intent of shaming him or her professionally. This could absolutely cause permanent and irreparable damage to this young person’s career. But at the end of the day the hard truth is that this girl caused that damage – not the paper. I guarantee that while she may not have considered the severity of what she was doing, she knew it wasn’t right. Not to make assumptions, but as a PR person I took a number of journalistic ethic courses so I am sure she did too.
Newspaper reporting in particular adheres to a stringent set of ethics rooted in the deep heritage of the medium. Many newspaper journalists I know take those rules very seriously. I recently worked with a reporter who I’m quite friendly with and he mentioned he was interested in a service my client had to offer. Without thinking I said I was certain my client would offer it for free. He became very serious and reminded me that was not allowed.
We’re lucky that those journalists believe very strongly in those rules because as many of those guidelines fade away journalism can lose it’s integrity. This young girl placed the integrity of the paper on the line by doing what she did and the paper could certainly have faced significant hardship from it. I’m sad this girl made such bad decisions, that she got called out for it. But in this case, I can’t fault the paper for highlighting it’s commitment to ethical journalism.
Rachel you said it better than I did, but I agree with you completely. You have to take the rules seriously, otherwise you don’t have the public trust. I think that some of those journalistic rules are already starting to fray and become ignored, and serious journalists really resent that.
One thing that I also forgot to mention. Should this discretion be covered up so that she can get another job someplace else down the line? Maybe she learned a lesson, but I would dare say journalism should not be her chosen profession anymore. Yes, she’s 19, but I can only assume that she’s not going to put this experience down on her resume 3-4 years from now. And I actually doubt that anyone is going to remember her name the way that we do with well established journalists like Jason Blair or Mike Barnacle.
I think the biggest problem here is the word “intern.” If she was a 19 year old reporter (which I’ve seen) would we even be having this discussion? Is it her age, or the position she held at the paper? I’m curious what others might think.
@jaykeith
No. Bad newspaper! Bad!
Yes, there was an opportunity hear to teach a young student a very serious lesson. But this wasn’t the way to do it.
Discretion is the better part of valor, and the publisher should have had the world experience to recognize that. Pull her aside, have a very serious talk, lay out some consequences, and be a mentor instead of making her scapegoat.
There are a million ways they could have handled this; they opted for the least courageous route.
Journalism is as much about honesty as it is accuracy, timeliness, locality, etc.. The things that every journalism/PR student has to learn in their very first class (and every one thereafter). She knew the difference. She’s in the wrong profession.
BUT she didn’t deserve to have her name smeared on the internet. The editor should have sent an email to her teacher overseeing her internship and let him/her know. That way, she would simply fail a class, not her career, at 19 years old.
Of course what this girl did was unacceptable and above all foolish. She definitely should have been fired, but to be named publicly?? The fact that this incident (at such a young age) will likely haunt her for the rest of her life is bad enough. Yes, she IS (technically) an adult, but let’s all be honest, who of us didn’t do downright stupid, absurd and ridiculous things when we were that age? Legally she is an adult, but mentally she is just coming into adulthood. I am 360 degrees from who I was six years ago and I would guess she will be too — especially after this mishap. And I suspect this has catapulted her right into the “real world”.
absolutely they should name her. Interns in newspapers are generally paid, which means you are a staff reporter. I was paid when I interned for a paper and I turned a story everyday….I would have expected my name to be outted if I had done what she did and she should have thought about that.
19 years old, sure she’s a teenager, but she accepted a job in JOURNALISM and along with that comes responsibilities of being an adult.
If you aren’t ready for the responsibilities, don’t take the job.
I’ll keep it short but I totally disagree w/the editor disclosing her name. Though plagiarism is absolutely irresponsible, I feel for this girl who is a young intern and having to delete numerous profiles and basically go in hiding as this story has taken off.
She deserved to be fired but I don’t think the newspaper/editor realized the repercussions of showcasing her name in the piece. A lesson should’ve been taught but not this way.
I’ll echo the sentiments about not disclosing the name. She’s an adult, and has to deal with the consequences of plagiarism in journalism, but the publication shouldn’t hang her out to dry – as they’re responsible for her content in the same way as any other staff writer, employee, etc.
At 19, she’s young enough to learn from it, but still have a very long career ahead of her. Look at Skip Bayless, sports reporter that was fired from San Jose Mercury News for questionable sources and innacuracies – he had a tarnished rep for a while, and now is a featured analyst/tv personality for ESPN. An extremely annoying analyst…..but still working on ESPN!
Great conversation here! It’s a really tough issue on whether or not she she have been outed. But the fact is that she was, and now she really should be trying to manage the damage versus hiding (like posting to her blog, like Lauren said above).
Regarding Ari and Lauren’s conversation above about whether the incident tarnishes the reputation of UF’s journalism program, the latest is that she might be expelled from the college of journalism (but not necessarily UF in general). http://collegemediamatters.com/2009/07/09/plagiarism-equals-expulsion-at-the-university-of-florida/
As a current intern at a large daily, I know better than to plagiarize. I am the same age as Hailey Mac Arthur, but I would never even THINK about doing what she did. I am very familiar with the story of Jayson Blair, an intern who rose the ranks to become a reporter on the national desk of The New York Times. He had serious issues and systematically decieved editors and co-workers while he plagiarized in dozens of stories. Now, Mac Arthur is nowhere near his level of deceit, but to pilfer stories from The Times so deliberately, it makes you wonder: How many times has she done this before, and why wouldn’t have that behavior stopped in the future?
She’s 19, a legal adult. A career in journalism is dead, as it should be. Let her find a job where her credibility isn’t a huge factor in getting hired. She’s obviously smart enough to get internships, so let her land on her own feet. This wasn’t a single, isolated incident, and I suspect she may have been devious before. There is one more thing that troubles me about her, which I’ve seen in some ambitious student journalists. On her blog, she notes herself as an “award-winning journalist.” That has a narcissistic tone, and while being ambitious isn’t a bad thing, that person may be likely to adopt a do-anything-at-any-cost attitude to get recognized. It’s sad, sad all-around.
For the most part, Gazette readers have agreed with the way this has been handled, but the question of using the intern’s name remains the one issue still under some debate.
I certainly took no glee in publishing her name. But this was not a simple personnel issue of a reporter padding a mileage sheet, which strikes no further than the employer-employee relationship. Plagiarism strikes not only at that internal relationship but also at the external relationship between the newspaper and the reader. The reader, then, is required to be notified. And that requires providing full information. As I’ve said to readers here in Colorado Springs, it would be insonsistent, to say the least, to make such a public apology in the name of transparency yet remain opaque about the source of the transgression. When holding public agencies accountable, we demand no less than full names; it’s hard to see how we could look those agencies in the eye if we aren’t willing to live by the same standard on matters where we are equally accountable to the public.
There also is a more practical matter. Finding out the name and publishing it on the web would be a simple matter for anyone. As others have pointed out, it’s folly to try to control content on the web. In the digital age, being needlessly coy serves as a dare, and can result in more attention than would have been the case by simply being upfront from the beginning.
The really interesting question, to me at this moment anyway, is about permanence. The argument is that any prospective employer will do a search on her name, and this episode will rise near the top of the results.
A couple thoughts about this. First, is the technical element of it true? How certain is it that a search on this person in 2015 will yank my editor’s note, or this blog, to the top of the results? Anyone care to predict the ways in which search engines will work a year from now, let alone six years from now? Certainly, they will become more encompassing, but will they present results the way we think they will?
Second, there’s an element to this question that has always been true, yet is being regarded as new. We’ve all done dopey or even criminal things in our youth. Most of us, happily, demonstrate the ability to learn from those mistakes. Just as happily, many others — people hiring others for jobs, for example — also demonstrate the ability to consider more than our embarrassing past, and they give us the job anyway, knowing that we’ve grown, matured, learned. Being upfront and honest about our past can be its own kind of recommendation.
What hasn’t been demonstrated, to my satisfaction anyway, is the assertion that Google has unwired our human inclination to consider people in their own contexts, or to give deserving people a new chance. Just because we can exhume a person’s past more completely than ever, does that mean we are less inclined to be thoughtful?
And consider this: In the pre-Google days, any reporter who failed to disclose a relevant black mark on his or her past during a job interview ran the risk of being tossed out summarily once the fact became known — if not because of the original sin, then certainly because of concealing it. It’s not longer a matter of relevant history; it’s a matter of trust. Google simply gives prospective employers more information; what employers do with that information is, or should be, a separate question.
I’d like to think that if a person is sincere about using life’s harsh lessons to become a better person, there is room for that person among us, even in a newsroom for a talented young journalist who made a few bad decisions.
I am no legal expert, but, given the legal sharks out there, it could very well be that outing the name (and the resulting brouhaha) had effectively and efficiently shut any doors for a lawsuit against the paper.
Conversely the very same sharks may go after the paper for outing an employee publicly for what is considered an HR/internal issue. When a newspaper demands transparency with agencies, it is because those agencies are usually elected and there is an expectation of transparency (including in public companies), is there any such implied or explicit expectancy for a newspaper’s employees? Do newspaper report every time its reporter takes a sick day off? Do the newspaper report every time its employee takes their spouse out on a date? Or buys their children a pet?
Jeff – thanks for taking the time to jump into the discussion here and thoughtfully share the reasons behind the decision. It’s certainly appreciated.
Hi Jeff –
I just wanted to echo what David said – and I really appreciate you taking the time out to respond to our post with such a thoughtful comment. Thanks!
Lauren
Great post and conversation guys! And kudos to Jeff Thomas for addressing this issue here.
I personally think the intern should have been named. You can’t learn from a mistake unless you take responsibility and therefore reap some consequences.
I believe the girl should have been named. She was working as an intern at the newspaper representing the University of Florida. As a student who has been in the College of Journalism and Communications from the first day we are taught the consequences of plagiarism. She was approaching her junior year and had interned at two newspapers before taking this position. Don’t let her age fool you, she knew the consequences of her actions. I truly hope they remove her from the program. It will only bring down the credibility of the program if she remains in it.
Lauren and David- Thanks for a great post that inspired an interesting debate over this topic. At first when I heard about this through a professor’s post, I knew she deserved to be fired, but not sure if her name should have been included. On one hand, she was just an intern and her editors should have checked her sources and the article as a whole. Apparently, this woman credited herself as an award winning writer, but at 19 is her writing level the same as a NYT writer? Would editors be able to tell the difference? On the other hand, we were taught as journalist to submit your articles as close as perfect as possible because editors shouldn’t have to spend hours correcting your articles for publication.
I agree with Jeff Thomas in that who knows what Google will be like in the future. She should have to disclose her mistakes and what she’s done to improve and move on to all future employers anyway. In high school and college, there’s a zero tolerance rule to plagiarism, not just in journalism, but in English, history and more. You would get in trouble or receive a lower grade if you did not cite correctly or include a citation page.
Sure, she was 19 and an intern, but should she not be held to those same journalistic standards as everyone else because of her age? We all make mistakes, but instead of learning from them, she repeatedly copied passages from the NYT. This was not a one time thing done on a time crunch. She chose to plagiarize and potentially ruin her future. I don’t think I could blame the paper of outing her. I agree with the other posters that it would be the best to own up to her mistakes, apologize and grow from this mistake.
I’m impressed by the high standards that many contributors here give to journalists – and their belief that naming and shaming this 19-year old was indeed the right thing to do.
I would make two points.
1. If all the journalists who had engaged in some form of plagiarism in their careerrs were named, I doubt that Google would have the capaicty to hold all of this data.
2. This person was an intern – a junior employee. Her work relationship was a confidential matter between her and her employer. If she broke some rules and did not perform as expected – that is an internal matter. It’s not something for broadcast to the world at large. It’s not for others to judge her performance at NYT.
The newspaper and its editor are responsible for what appears in their newspaper – naming employees for poor performance does not detract from their failure to adequately supervise and manage their staff.
While outing the intern may seem cruel, unfortunately journalism has been plagued by reporters at prestigious publications like the NY Times who have invented stories or plagiarized work. I’m sure they started out small, like this woman, and believed they were too clever to get caught.
This was more than a “mistake.” A mistake is an accident – this was a deliberate choice by a intern with experience at other newspapers. She knew what she was doing and though she was smarter than everyone else. Newspaper staffs today have been cut to the bone. Everyone is still working on the same deadlines and covering the same areas, but the pressure is greater and there is less time and fewer people to check facts. You have to trust your staff.
About 25 years ago, I worked at Emory University Medical School. An Emory intern had gone on to Harvard. He had a residency under their most prestigious cardiologist, and someone discovered he was fabricating his research. Apparently he believed he was so smart that his theories were valid, and he didn’t need to actually prove them. After this discovering, people started investigating all of his work, and it turned out that he had been inventing his data going back to high school.
I don’t know this woman, and since she has retreated from the blogosphere, we don’t know her side of the story. But it sounds like she, too, thought she was too clever and could get away with whatever she wanted. I bet if she hadn’t been outed, she would simply have gone on to another paper and done it again. I don’t think the editor had any choice.
The paper had to protect its integrity and to protect other papers from hiring a potential plagiarist.
Thanks for pointing this story out, I hadn’t heard about it. As a PR adjunct professor I can tell you that plagiarism is 1) covered your freshman year in college by ALL profs no matter the subject (I had to sign a form stating that I understood what plagiarism was and that I would never dishonor my college by doing it, anyone else?) and 2) plagiarism is discussed in PR, journalism and communications classes over and over. Sorry, but if she paid attention at all in class she’d know what she was doing was wrong AND why.
Whether it’s PR or journalism we’re taught to find a different or intriguing angle that makes the story better than the competition’s. Clearly Hailey missed the importance of that and opportunity that doing so would provide her in her future career.
I think The Gazette had every right to protect their integrity and explain why they fired her. The thought also may have crossed their mind that could have been putting themselves at risk for a lawsuit (age discrimination).
Speaking of plagiarism…did you see this story?
“N.Y. Times’ Dowd Admits Lifting Blogger’s Words” (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520467,00.html)
Kind of ironic, huh? Newspaper intern plagiarizes the NY Times and gets fired, Pulitzer Prize winning NY Times journalist plagiarizes a blogger and gets a correction.
Beth Harte
Community Manager, MarketingProfs
@bethharte
Hello everyone, I know I’m late but I’m research “Incidents of Plagiarism that occurs in Communication Public/Media Relation’s Field. In my opinion I feel The Gazette should have reviewed ANY & EVERYTHING an intern publicize. So I hold the newspaper company responsible for that portion of the finger pointing. Second there is not reason in the world why the intern was not knowledgeable of the seriousness of plagiarism. You learn that in High School and you are REMINDER in College so that portion is all on the intern. And She needs to learn that your name is you BRAND you are branding you. I think she should have a back up career, and I do not blame The Gazette was sharing Hailey Mac Arthur name I would. Hailey Mac Arthur I say add you full name Google alert and have it sent to your email address, so you can understand your mistake and write it off has a lesson learned. Thanks this article and all the comments as helped a lot with my research.
Pashae L. W.