margaret wente
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It's almost ironic (in the Alanis Morissette sense) that one of Canada's more original thinkers in the media has been found guilty of plagiarism.
I'm not familiar with the details but I will make this observation: Journalism isn't academia. People in journalism don't conduct independent research, they write history on the fly. Much of what appears in the media isn't original, and sources often aren't cited for stated facts. Indeed, much of the "research" in journalism consists of little more than looking at what other journalists have written or reported on the same subject.
For example, think of the number of times the account of Jack Layton and Olivia Chow supposedly freeloading in subsidized housing was repeated in the press. The actual facts in that case seem to suggest Layton and Chow did nothing wrong and I would guess most journalists who have written on the issue didn't conduct their own research.
Furthermore, I think Wente is correct that she is a target because many people (folks on the left, although she didn't identify them as such) don't like her views.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/columnist-margaret-wente-defends-herself/article4565731/
Perhaps there's more to this story but this sure strikes me as a trivial matter.
I'm not familiar with the details but I will make this observation: Journalism isn't academia. People in journalism don't conduct independent research, they write history on the fly. Much of what appears in the media isn't original, and sources often aren't cited for stated facts. Indeed, much of the "research" in journalism consists of little more than looking at what other journalists have written or reported on the same subject.
For example, think of the number of times the account of Jack Layton and Olivia Chow supposedly freeloading in subsidized housing was repeated in the press. The actual facts in that case seem to suggest Layton and Chow did nothing wrong and I would guess most journalists who have written on the issue didn't conduct their own research.
Furthermore, I think Wente is correct that she is a target because many people (folks on the left, although she didn't identify them as such) don't like her views.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/columnist-margaret-wente-defends-herself/article4565731/
Perhaps there's more to this story but this sure strikes me as a trivial matter.
I agree with this.
However, those in the profession probably take a dim view on it.
No different than my field where we are very protective about our technology lest it fall into the hands of the competition.
Fareed Zakaria is back on the air. I guess plagiarism is no longer the crime that our teachers always told us about.
Multiple charges of plagiarism are not trivial in journalism.
Thems firing words.
Fareed Zakaria is back on the air. I guess plagiarism is no longer the crime that our teachers always told us about--however, those in the profession probably take a dim view on it.
Perhaps there's more to this story but this sure strikes me as a trivial matter, but still, it's not nice to be a copy cat!
Perhaps there's more to this story but this sure strikes me as a trivial matter, but still, it's not nice to be a copy cat!
I was out of the country and didn't follow day by day, but it seems the greater failing was that of the Globe's public affairs and management folks. Their failure to catch the offending matter was compounded by their tardy, inaccurate and incomplete responses to the complaints. Canada's national newspaper indeed!
One of Canada's best columnists, Terence Corcoran, has weighed in on the issue.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com...rgaret-wente-why-we-dont-need-public-editors/
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks this is a rather "trivial" matter.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com...rgaret-wente-why-we-dont-need-public-editors/
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks this is a rather "trivial" matter.
Well I guess that's decided.
All of Wente's chums have agreed that plagiarism doesn't count if you're friends with the publisher.
Nice.
We all take our "inspiration" from what we see around us.
Musicians do it all the time.
Architects do it all the time
Engineers do it all the time.
You name it.
It needs to be taken in context, in a time when all media are under increasing corporate control and even the BBC is in the midst of a scandal for intentionally not telling the public details of a health bill.
If Marge had done her own explaining/defence the triviality would have been all we remembered. Unfortunately, G&M management saw fit to step in, and make a muddy mountain out of her molehill. It's their system that didn't catch the slip, slept through the alarm, then over-reacted more sloppily than the original, without even the excuse of being on deadline, as she was.
Wente only writes columns good and bad, she doesn't run a daily newspaper aspiring to national eminence. Thats the act that needs pulling together.
There's no question the Globe handled this issue poorly. Frankly, news organizations usually do a terrible job responding to bad news when the bad news is about their own organization.
Meanwhile, the Star is now offering up some dick-licking by the newspaper's public editor. The article goes on about how wonderful the Star is, and suggests the newspaper would never get caught up in the Wente issue of not properly quoting someone.
Be sure to read all the way to the end.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/publ...e-plagiarism-scandal-a-test-for-public-editor
