Friday, May 12, 2006
Plagerism: The plague is spreading
It's one of those issues that comes in cycles. It hits hard then falls off the radar for awhile, until the next big thing.
A few years ago it was Jayson Blair, the reporter for The New York Times, who plagerized and fabricated his way to infamy. Most recently it was Kaavya Viswanathan, the young Harvard student who took pieces of her novel from the works of other published authors.
Now it's a freelance writer for NBC who lifted pieces . . . complete with inflections . . . not from some obscure years-old cable show, but from the network's own West Wing as part of the Kentucky Derby coverage.
The chutzpah of this writer, to throw their own show back at them like this. And the shame of NBC personnel for not reconizing it before it was aired.
A few years ago it was Jayson Blair, the reporter for The New York Times, who plagerized and fabricated his way to infamy. Most recently it was Kaavya Viswanathan, the young Harvard student who took pieces of her novel from the works of other published authors.
Now it's a freelance writer for NBC who lifted pieces . . . complete with inflections . . . not from some obscure years-old cable show, but from the network's own West Wing as part of the Kentucky Derby coverage. The chutzpah of this writer, to throw their own show back at them like this. And the shame of NBC personnel for not reconizing it before it was aired.
