Story #1: Another Pulitzer Prize Winner Caught Plagiarizing
RUSH: We have, ladies and gentlemen, another suspension of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at the Washington Post, this time for plagiarism. "The Washington Post suspended one of its most seasoned reporters Wednesday after editors determined that 'substantial' parts of two recent news articles were taken without attribution from another newspaper.
Sari Horwitz, a longtime Post investigative reporter, was suspended for three months for plagiarizing sections of stories that first appeared in the Arizona Republic. The stories concerned the investigation of and legal proceedings for Jared Lee Loughner, the Arizona man accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. ...
"Some news organizations, including The Post, have fired reporters for plagiarism. 'But nowadays, editors try to look at the full context of what happened and why it happened.'" Well, the full context means do we really value this reporterette? Obviously previous reporters caught plagiarizing weren't that valuable in the first place, they were just canned. But for some reason Sari Horwitz is considered valuable to the Washington Post, so that's the context that editors are looking at now, the full context of what happened and why it happened.
She basically stole, that's what plagiarism is, for those of you in Rio Linda. Horwitz joined the Post in 1984. There could be a reason why they are only suspending her. I mean, '84, she's been there a lot of years. That's quite a healthy payout. She's one of the newspaper's most decorated plagiarists. "She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize with her colleague Scott Higham in 2002 for a series about the deaths of foster children under the care of D.C.’s child-welfare agencies." Isn't everything she's done now suspect, though? You know, in their original report, the Washington Post didn't even mention her name. They just said they had suspended a reporter for plagiarism.
I have to agree with Limbaugh, anyone who plagiarizes - who works for a newspaper, publisher, etc., should be fired.
But Rush usually only gives half the story. Let's see if the original article from which he was reading has any more to say...
Horwitz copied two paragraphs from a Republic story that described provisions of a federal civil rights law when she wrote an article that was first published on The Post’s Web site March 4. A second story, first appearing online on March 10, included 10 paragraphs from a Republic story about a search of Loughner’s home. Both stories appeared in the newspaper the day after they went up online.
Plagiarism has long been one of the most serious ethical violations in journalism. Reporters often cite other news sources for information that they haven’t gathered themselves, but the standard practice is to paraphrase the material and attribute the information to its source.
Some news organizations, including The Post, have fired reporters for copying another journalist’s work and presenting it as their own. “For a long time, it was viewed as an excommunication sin, beyond mortal sin,” said Bob Steele, a professor of journalism ethics at DePauw University. “But nowadays, editors try to look at the full context of what happened and why it happened” before rushing to punish. He added that digital technology and increased competition via the Internet make such errors of judgment more likely.
So now plagiarizing isn't stealing, it's an "error of judgment" - or rather pure laziness.
In a statement Wednesday, Horwitz said: “I am deeply sorry. To our readers, my friends and colleagues, my editors, and to the paper I love, I want to apologize.” She added: “Under the pressure of tight deadlines, I did something I have never done in my entire career. I used another newspaper’s work as if it were my own. It was wrong. It was inexcusable. And it is one of the cardinal sins in journalism. I apologize to the Arizona Republic and its reporters and editors. I accept the punishment that The Washington Post has given to me. And I am grateful the paper will allow me to return. I hope to come back a better journalist and a better person.”
Horwitz electronically cut and pasted material from the Republic and then placed it in a lengthy Microsoft Word document with other notes she had taken about the shooting, according to people familiar with the matter. Under deadline pressure, she transferred some of this material to her stories, delivering it to her editors as if she had written it.
That's not an error, that's downright stealing, and it seems so silly. As a writer myself, I know it doesn't take very long to rewrite something - or if you are going to use a whole block quote, you credit your source - easy.
Horwitz, who joined The Post in 1984, is one of the newspaper’s most decorated reporters. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize with her colleague Scott Higham in 2002 for a series about the deaths of foster children under the care of D.C.’s child-welfare agencies.
She was also part of two teams of Post reporters who won Pulitzers — one for coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, and another for a 1998 series about shootings by members of the District police force.
Horwitz and Higham also covered the investigation of the murder of D.C. intern Chandra Levy. Their 2008 series in The Post identified Ingmar Guandique as the most likely suspect in the case. Guandique was convicted of the killing last year.
“I have great respect for The Post,” said Lovely, the Republic’s editor. “At the same time, our reporters worked hard to gather this information, and it’s not right to simply take it. She took a shortcut she should not have taken.”
He added, “I’m not mad, just disappointed.”
Contacted at home on Wednesday, Horwitz declined to make any public statements beyond her written one.
One does wonder how she thought she could get away with it. She didn't think people would read both papers?
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the newspaper industry responds. Will they demand that she be fired, or will they shrug and thing, well, 3 months suspension, that's fair. That'll set a good precedent for future plagiarists. We mustn't have them be scared that they'll lose their jobs if they take a shortcut!
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