Interesting situation in Detroit - UPDATED

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

Actually, I don't think this is apples and oranges in terms of the Albom situation. What Albom did was worse because he completely fabricated a scene that never happened. It wasn't just him placing two basketball players some place they weren't. He described what they were wearing, and how they were cheering. Even worse, it passed through several editors and actually ran in the paper. Farrell's story didn't run.

Obviously, there's a huge difference between Farrell and Albom in terms of importance, but that shit wouldn't hold up in a court of law, would it?

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

It's apples and oranges because the new owner and new editor do not necessarily need to abide by the precedents of the previous owner and editor in determining punishment for these types of things, although it's the same newspaper with many of the same workers. Gannett and Paul Anger are free to make up their own minds and choose a different way of handling situations than the Freep did under KR and Carole Leigh Hutton. So the blogger attempting to compare the two is apples and oranges. It would be a valid comparison only if KR and Hutton were still calling the shots, or if Gannett and Anger had somehow agreed to run the Freep exactly the same as KR and Hutton.

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

It ran in every paper it was sent to. No editor at any level at any newspaper caught the mistake. The only change made to it was by a rookie copy editor, who simply made it worse. That "fix" was applauded by Poynterbots and dolts everywhere.

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

This quote seems odd. I'd presume there are plenty of reporters with his experience level who haven't gotten columnist jobs at major papers.

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

Wasn't Gene Myers his direct supervisor under both companies? Has the name of the Detroit Free Press changed between Gannett and KR?
The bottom line is in the court of law, people may not see it as Gannett and KR. We newspaper people would. But when a juror hears Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press fabricated a story and was punished one month and Perry Ferrell of the Detroit Free Press lifted a passage from a website, but his story was not published, but was dismissed.
So you the jury decide.

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

And if that was the first time Ferrell'd tried to pawn off copy as his own, you'd be correct in thinking it is an unfair comparison.
However dubious, Albom's copy passed muster of an investigation (which just killed me).
Farrell's not a first-time offender. And that's why he's gone.

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

Who's to say that Albom did not have any previous offenses?

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

Anger's a very sharp guy. I would be astonished if he didn't confer with the newspaper's lawyer.

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

The last person in the world to defend The Dwarf is me... I have kinda made a career of it...
But, Perry had been suspended for plagarism once before. Albom had not been suspended nor reprimanded for any such offense -- no matter his renown for never letting the facts get in the way of a good story.
If Albom had pulled his St. Louis stunt, say, in 1999 and gotten caught, then did it again but still kept his job while Farrell was fired for this instance -- yes, Perry would have a legal AND moral leg to stand on.
Albom's was a first offense in the eyes of the Freep -- however shameless. Farrell's was not.

It's the whole reason he was suspended for a week the first time. Saylor lifted a couple of grafs; Farrell several NBA season caps. But since Saylor got a week, they couldn't give Farrell more than the same punishment even though he pawned off more work as his own.

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

If he was a white guy with the same competence level, he'd be writing preps for the Hooterville County Bugle.

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

That's the Hooterville World Guardian, pal...

 

Re: Interesting situation in Detroit

It was telling that, when Krista Latham Jahnke missed part of the Eastern Conference Finals for her wedding (date picked before she got the beat), the Freep didn't use Farrell, their former NBA writer.

Instead, they went with a rookie baseball writer.