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America's oldest newspaper apologizes for plagiarism

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

On 4 Sept. 09, Richard J. Graziano CEO, President & Publisher of the Hartford Courant, apologized for recent plagiarism by the Hartford Courant, noting in part:

In short, after an extensive internal review, we have determined that over the last several weeks The Courant plagiarized the work of some of our competitors. This was not our intent, but it is in fact what happened.

In covering the story, Frank James of NPR wrote:

As in academia, few offenses are greater in journalism than plagiarism.

IPBiz does not know if Mr. James covered the Glenn Poshard plagiarism matter at SIU. If he did, he presumably would not talk about how great an offense plagiarism is in academia. Poshard, currently the President of SIU, plagiarized in his Ph.D. thesis, and a later-formed SIU committee plagiarized its definition of plagiarism. One can also mention Laurence Tribe and Doris Kearns-Goodwin; they are plagiarists who are still at Harvard. Joe Biden plagiarized at Syracuse Law School, graduated, and became Vice-President.

James quoted from the New Britain Herald :

In some cases The Courant appears to have lifted information from the other papers in its entirety without any attribution. But either way, editors say, the Courant is using for free and making money from a product other papers pay to produce, and they want it to stop.

One recalls International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215 (1918). That case was NOT about plagiarism (the source stories were re-written), and the misappropriation doctrine it created "postpones participation by complainant's competitor in the processes of distribution and reproduction of news that it has not gathered, and only to the extent necessary to prevent that competitor from reaping the fruits of complainant's efforts and expenditure." [Brandeis dissented.]

***See previous IPBiz post-->

?At best plagiarism, at worst outright theft.??

Frank James is invited to read the Harvard Business Review as to "plagiarize with pride."

Full post as published by IPBiz on September 05, 2009 (boomark / email).