A problem in Detroit?

[Moderator1]

What do you think?

Sharp Callout: Blogger Slams Freep and Columnist for 'Journalism's Biggest Sin'

 

[WriteThinking]

I think newspapers, or, more specifically, newspaper reporters, still tend not to treat blogs/bloggers as they would another newspaper/newspaper reporter.

Hence, the lifting of the information in the paragraph regarding McCoy's life-changing car accident, and that's what happened here.

I have mixed feelings about it. Other than that one paragraph, Sharp's story seems original and fine. The details regarding the accident certainly should have been attributed, or, better yet, gotten, again, by Sharp himself. But if they had been, I wonder if they would have looked/read any differently than they did in his plagiarized version.

The paragraph in question was a recitation of the facts of the accident. Without attribution -- in other words, written just as facts that Sharp had gotten directly (if he had done that), how would we know if plagiarism was committed anyway, unless those original facts were somehow wrong, or had changed in the meantime?

Given the type of story it was, the fact that the facts of the story were already out there, and the fact that the reporter of the original story was OK with how the Free-Press handled the issue, I think I'd be OK with it, too.

 

[WriteThinking]

The funny/bad thing is, Sharp's story could have gone almost entirely without that paragraph at all, and it probably would have been fine.

 

[Starman]

Dead-bang plagiarism.

And no, the original author doesn't get to decide it's OK.

 

[Starman]

One thing is, you can tell Drew Sharp sure as hell didn't come up with the story idea himself, because it isn't a ****-splattering click-trolling rip job on anybody and everybody involved.

It must have been one of the monthly or bimonthly "write something nice about somebody" orders Sharp gets from the Freep brass so they can roll out some clips to respond to accusations, "Sharp never does anything but ****ing **** and moan about everything and everybody in any ******* story he writes."

 

[Fredrick]

Dead-bang plagiarism.

And no, the original author doesn't get to decide it's OK.

Got to agree with this 100 percent. Pretty powerful comments by the subject of the article where she says she never talked to the FREEP and felt sorry for the original author. Powerful.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

One thing is, you can tell Drew Sharp sure as hell didn't come up with the story idea himself, because it isn't a ****-splattering click-trolling rip job on anybody and everybody involved.

It must have been one of the monthly or bimonthly "write something nice about somebody" orders Sharp gets from the Freep brass so they can roll out some clips to respond to accusations, "Sharp never does anything but ****ing **** and moan about everything and everybody in any ******* story he writes."

Yeah, if all someone ever does is ***** and moan about how terrible everything is it might be amusing at times, but would eventually get tedious. Maybe it's a Michigan thing?

 

[wheels89]

I could swear that Gannett had a zero tolerance plagiarism policy because a long time ago Barry Stanton at The Journal News got fired for plagiarism that was 20 times not as egregious or dead to rights as this.
However maybe that also went by the waste side in their reinventing of the newsrooms.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I could swear that Gannett had a zero tolerance plagiarism policy because a long time ago Barry Stanton at The Journal News got fired for plagiarism that was 20 times not as egregious or dead to rights as this.
However maybe that also went by the waste side in their reinventing of the newsrooms.

That might have been a newsroom thing. Not a Local Information Center thing or a Newsroom of the Future thing.

 

[bevo]

I could swear that Gannett had a zero tolerance plagiarism policy because a long time ago Barry Stanton at The Journal News got fired for plagiarism that was 20 times not as egregious or dead to rights as this.
However maybe that also went by the waste side in their reinventing of the newsrooms.

And let's not forget, Mitch Albom still technically has a job there, although he's more into promoting his books nowadays. And he just made stuff up.

 

[User 4332]

And let's not forget, Mitch Albom still technically has a job there, although he's more into promoting his books nowadays. And he just made stuff up.

Making stuff up is worse than plagiarizing.

 

[Starman]

Not over yet:

David Harns calls Drew Sharp out over lack of apology in plagiarism case

 

[Ace]

My 2 cents:

The article linked is no prize. It's confusing, buries the lead and oddly seems like it's trying to be objective with this pent up anger burbling up.

It's not the slightest bit unusual for a story or column to mention someone who never talked to that paper or writer. In some cases it's very lazy, though.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

No. 22,345 on the list of Detroit's problems.

 

[Ace]

No. 22,345 on the list of Detroit's problems.

#lowhangingfruit

 

[Doc Holliday]

what happened.

 

[CD Boogie]

Sharp should have been ****canned when it first happened. His paper offered to pay the original writer for an article that he wrote for another publication because Sharp had so blatantly plagiarized. That says it all, both about the offense and about the journalistic standards of the Detroit Free Press. Oh, our employee stole your ****? Here, let's pay you for what he stole. We good now?

 

[Starman]

Incidentally, Sharp WAS ****canned from his talk-radio gig a week or so ago, but it appeared to have nothing to do with the plagiarism, rather Sharp's utter snooze-inducing incompetence as a radio talker.

 

[Ace]

Incidentally, Sharp WAS ****canned from his talk-radio gig a week or so ago, but it appeared to have nothing to do with the plagiarism, rather Sharp's utter snooze-inducing incompetence as a radio talker.

Ironically,sports talk radio is a gig where you can liberally borrow from stories with little or no attribution.