By: Joe Strupp Veteran Political Journalist Lifted Quotes From Other Papers
Sacramento Bee editors on Tuesday fired a veteran
political reporter who admitted to taking quotes and information
from other newspapers and making up comments attributed to a non-
existent author. Dennis Love, 46, had been covering the
presidential election.
"To us at The Bee, those ethical lapses are an
unacceptable breach of the necessary trust that editors place in
reporters," Bee Editor Rick Rodriguez wrote in a column
Wednesday informing readers of the firing. "We at The Bee
apologize to you, our readers, and to the journalists and
newspapers whose work was plagiarized."
Rodriguez explained that editors became concerned with Love's
reporting while editing a story he wrote on the Electoral College
last Friday. He said editors did not recognize the name of a
professor quoted in the story, and upon checking the name through
a research database found a similar comment attributed to the
same person in a U.S. News & World Report story.
That prompted them to kill Love's story and do some further
checking on other stories the reporter had written related to the
presidential race, Rodriguez wrote. The review revealed that Love
had lifted quotes and information from several newspapers in
recent weeks, including USA Today, The Boston Globe, and
The Dallas Morning News.
"In today's multimedia world, that kind of error in judgment may
seem commonplace," Rodriguez wrote in his column. "But there is
an intellectual dishonesty to this kind of expediency."
Further reviews, Rodriguez explained, also found that Love had
quoted a nonexistent Washington expert on gun control. The Sept.
12 story on Al Gore's gun control voting record included comments
from a Warren Deering, whom Love described as "a Washington-based
author." But research by editors found no trace of the fictional
man.
When editors approached Love with the evidence, he admitted to
the fabrication and plagiarism and agreed to give up his job.
"The bottom line is, I did the wrong thing," Love told the San
Francisco Chronicle. "I'm very sorry that it happened."
Love had been at The Bee for about 20 months, editors
said. His previous experience included stints at the Orange
County Register, The Arizona Republic, and the Los Angeles
Daily News.
Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for E&P.
Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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