Ethics question not related to the current Miami situation

Guys and gals;

I posed this question to you last year when I had some quotes ripped out of one of my stories without attribution. Last time, it was a paper smaller than the one I worked at, and I went through the proper channels at my paper to make sure the bosses at the other paper knew what had happened (although I never heard a thing about it).

This time, it's a much, much bigger paper -- and it was used in a pretty decent sized conference wrap.

In both cases, I checked with the people who gave me the individual quotes, and I have confirmed they were said to me alone. I believed the coach/athlete in each situation, no question about that.

Now, I do have a bit of a problem with this sort of thing being OK. I don't need my name in the other publications, but what the hell is a paper's point in staffing their own events if the material gathered specifically by that paper is fair game to any other paper/station/Web site without any type of attribution?

 

NO attribution or the "information for this story was taken from other wire services and newspapers."

If it's no credit or mention it was taken from some other source by the writer, fuck yeah raise hell.

 

Nada. Specifically checked for it.
The only thing I wondered about was that there was no byline on the most-recent article -- the one in the bigger paper.

 

I betcha the New Mexico reporter who found her quotes and descriptions in Jayson Blair's New York Times story was wondering the same thing as you ... raise hell.

 

Well hell, I already know that paper wasn't at the game in question.
And I believe the reporter who set the Blair stuff was in San Antonio, but not that it matters.

 

San Antonio sounds right ... one of the southwestern places.

 

My advice? Raise hell with the other paper's editors. I wish I would have.

A few years ago, I covered a college football game on the road. After the game, I spoke one-on-one with my local school's head coach. Along came a reporter from the school paper. No problem.
A few days later, quotes from my story appeared in a much bigger competitor in a wrap-up column. I called the reporter and asked him where he got the quotes. He admitted typing them verbatim from my paper, but said that he talked to "school officials" who said that I was not the only reporter to talk to the coach. And the "general rule" was that if there are two or more reporters talking to a coach, it's considered a presser, and the quotes are fair game. I never pressed the issue beyond that. Now I really wish I had.