Comments on: Should Newspaper Have Outed an Intern for Plagiarism

By: Pashae Williams

Pashae Williams — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:41:24 +0000

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.

By: Why Would You Bother to Comment? | danny brown

Why Would You Bother to Comment? | danny brown — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:54:00 +0000

[...] it’s hard not to “jump in”. When David Mullen & Lauren Fernandez asked Should Newspaper Have Outed an Intern for Plagerism? on Communications Catalyst, 107 comments ensued. A recent post on the Bad Pitch Blog regarding the [...]

By: Dear Michael Vick: I Hate You | PRetty Social

Dear Michael Vick: I Hate You | PRetty Social — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:18:05 +0000

[...] to realize that before they make certain actions (like killing dogs for instance). Just look at the intern who plagiarized a few articles from the New York Times. She’s going to be haunted with that for life and will [...]

By: Techcrunch and Twitter Documents: Was it Ethical? Was it Smart? « The Spinks Blog

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:09:14 +0000

[...] torn, while Sonny is more confident of his stance. In the spirit of a great collaborative post by Lauren Fernandez and David Mullen on a different issue, we’ve decided to take the same approach and work together to provide a [...]

By: 3Hats Communications: Marketing and Public Relations Blog

3Hats Communications: Marketing and Public Relations Blog — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:55:37 +0000

[...] Mullen and Lauren Fernandez wrote about the decision to publicly name an intern who broke five of the 10 Commandments of journalism, committed plagiarism. Gazette editor Jeff [...]

By: The Gazette Intern « Lexd’s Blog

The Gazette Intern « Lexd’s Blog — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:01:50 +0000

[...] I have my own thoughts on the subject, check out David Mullen and Lauren Fernandez’ co-post about it on David’s blog. They have some great insight and the 100+ comments are certainly [...]

By: Lauren Fernandez

Lauren Fernandez — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:08:53 +0000

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

By: Beth Harte

Beth Harte — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:09:56 +0000

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

By: David

David — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:15:37 +0000

Jeff – thanks for taking the time to jump into the discussion here and thoughtfully share the reasons behind the decision. It’s certainly appreciated.

By: Nadine Bonner

Nadine Bonner — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:01:06 +0000

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.