An Apology for Plagiarism p.

By: Mark Fitzgerald

An Apology for Plagiarism p.
Lansing State Journal apologizes for reprinting college paper's
copyrighted, four-page special section without permission
LANSING (MICH.) STATE Journal editor Zack Binkley publicly apologized for lifting a copyrighted, four-page special section from the student-run State News of Michigan State University.
In a correction and in a longer editorial page column, Binkley blamed the massive plagiarism on a series of "unintentional" mistakes.
"I'm really convinced it was inadvertent," Binkley said in a telephone interview. "It doesn't absolve us of the fact that we used their material."
The apology came 10 days after the State Journal April 8 ran a "special report" entitled "Your guide to the candidates" that was an abbreviated ? but word-for-word ? copy of a four-page special section published the day before by the State News.
The State News special section disclosed for the first time the confidential list of candidates under consideration for MSU president.
After somehow obtaining the closely held list, the team of 21 student reporters researched and reported on the current position of the candidates, their ages, education and career backgrounds and disclosed how each came to be nominated.
The State Journal special report eliminated the short biographical profiles but reprinted all the other information ? including a spelling error, odd word usage and even the exact order of an unalphabetized list of candidates who declined nomination.
For example, both newspapers used this exact wording ? including a run-on sentence and unusual wording ? in the profile of candidate Philip E. Austin: "Nominated by: Heidrick & Struggles; he has been listed as having accepted his nomination, but when asked for comment, unequivocally declined the nomination. Austin said he did not wish to be considered and although he said he was contacted by the research firm, he said he told the firm he was not interested."
Both newspapers ? quoting Austin as "unequivocally" declining the nomination ? nevertheless did not include him in a list of "candidates who declined nomination."
That list, incidentally, unaccountably begins with Barbara Jordan and ends with Richard N. Aslin. The State Journal list appears in the same order.
Other State News errors were repeated in the State Journal account.
State News editor in chief Bill Fris-chling said that when he first saw the State Journal plagiarism, "without exaggeration, my jaw fell on the floor. We weren't even given the respect of a credit. They didn't ask us for permission ? and it came out as their work."
Even worse, Frischling said, the student paper had lent the State Journal several photographs of candidates.
At the suggestion of the student paper's lawyer, Frischling sent a letter of complaint to State Journal publisher N. Curtis Riddle.
What Frischling received in reply, he said, was an angry phone call from State Journal editor Binkley, who "yelled at me for sending the letter."
"He said something like, 'You want a war? We'll give you a war.' He also said, 'What are you going to do, sue us?' " Frischling said.
When first contacted by Editor & Publisher, in fact, Binkley vigorously disputed that the special report was a plagiary.
In a telephone conversation the next day, however, Binkley conceded his newspaper had "lifted" the State News material.
"Some honest mistakes were made," Binkley said.
In the interview, Binkley declined to say what editorial procedures, if any, would be changed as a result of the incident or if any employee would be disciplined.
Binkley was a little more forthcoming in his April 19 column.
"When the [State News] story broke, our reporters and editors went to work obtaining the list and the information for our own presentation," he wrote.
"But a major mistake was made when we typed the material from their paper into our computer system. We had started the process of lifting their material. The reason this was done was to save time.
"We felt certain that we would obtain all of this material during the course of the day and that we would then rework the copy.
"We did, in fact, obtain a copy of the list but not a copy of the biographical material. Because of inadequate internal cross-checks on the story, the page went to press with the State News material intact," Binkley wrote.
Frischling said the student journalists were pleased with Binkley's response.
While the incident is behind the students, they remain shaken by the theft, Frischling said.
"There's a lot of idealism here and it was just like, 'Pop! Boom! It's gone,' " he said. "A lot of us were turning around and saying, 'Is this what we're going to turn into in 10 years?' "
In addition to Frischling, the student journalists who produced the candidate list exclusive were Patrick Bryant, Erin Burke, Natalie Barna, Cami Castellanos, Katy Coelho, Bryan Erickson, Amy Finkelstein, Kim Jenkins, Peggy Kelley, Kevin Ketels and Julianna Kler.
Also, Michael Lee, Jackie Long, Glenn McDonald, Jeff McMillan, Stacey Melin, J. Scott Park, Jeff Parrott, Rachel Perry, Meredith Petran, Marc Rodriguez, Michele Ruehs, Kevin Shaw, Chuck Van Pamme, John Vanzile, Annette Vasquez, Cybil Wallace and Esther Wallen.