- Messages
- 79,278
- Reaction score
- 45,637
Well, we've finally been plagiarized
Posted by Mike Florio on November 6, 2009 3:07 PM ET
We've experienced over the years the phenomenon of news organizations borrowing our stories without attribution.
Typically, what happens is that someone in the journalism business will use one of our stories as a starting point for their own "reporting." So then they'll get someone, either on or off the record, to "confirm" the same thing we've already reported, and then they'll report the item without acknowledging where they first saw it.
But, to our knowledge, we've never had our words cut and pasted verbatim by anything other than a small, no-name blog site or message board.
Until now.
Yesterday afternoon, our own Michael David Smith (who writes primarily for AOL's FanHouse.com) posted a blurb regarding Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter's belief, as articulated on NFL Network, that Pats quarterback Tom Brady has his own set of rules. Rich Eisen, the NFLN host extraordinaire who handled the segment with Porter, tweeted a link to the MDS story.
Several hours later, someone from "ESPN.com staff" posted the first five paragraphs of the MDS story -- word for freaking word.
Word. For freaking word.
You can do your own comparison. Here's MDS' story. And here's the ESPN.com story. (We figure that the ESPN.com link won't survive much longer. So we've got a screen grab of it.)
Despite the fact that our friend Mike Reiss' photo appears on the still-active-as-of-this-posting ESPN.com page, we're certain that this wasn't something Reiss did. Mike's character is above reproach, and my guess is that he won't be happy about this one at all. (We also assume he currently knows nothing about it.)
We're not trying to get the member of "ESPN.com staff" who lifted MDS' work product fired. But if ESPN is interested in syndicating some of our content, we think there's a better way to go about it.
You know, a way that involves paying us for it.
ESPN addresses plagiarism issue
Posted by Mike Florio on November 6, 2009 4:20 PM ET
Well, it took about an hour, but ESPN.com finally has removed from its servers the five plagiarized paragraphs from the story posted Thursday afternoon by Michael David Smith.
The ESPN.com story is now replaced with a one-paragraph blurb, and it is preceded by this message: "From the editors of ESPNBoston.com: A Thursday night blog post featuring Joey Porter's comments regarding Patriots quarterback Tom Brady should have been attributed to ProFootballTalk.com. The attribution has been corrected."
Though we're desperately trying (and possibly failing) to keep the high road within shouting distance on this one, we're not sure that the explanation -- which is missing a key word that we've yet to hear privately, either -- does the situation justice.
This wasn't a failure of attribution. It was a five-paragraph, Chris Landry-style cut and paste. As MDS pointed out in an IM exchange, the "ESPN.com staff" who did the cutting and pasting saw fit to remove the italics from the words "Around the League" and to supply quotation marks instead, which shows that this wasn't a quick and thoughtless error.
Meanwhile, PFT Planet is being heard loudly and clearly, in the comments to our first item on the plagiarism and in the comments to the ESPN.com story.
It also has sparked a minor buzz on Twitter, including an observation from the man whose interview with Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter launched this specific ship. "I'm honored that it was my smack-filled chat with Joey Porter that led to your first plagiarizing," NFLN's Rich Eisen said. "Congrats. Now go sic em."
And, to his credit, our friend Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com -- who was not responsible for the post in question -- acknowledged the matter on his Twitter feed: "I can understand where Mike Florio is coming from," Reiss said. "He should get an explanation."
Though the matter has been corrected (and we appreciate that very much), we're still waiting for the explanation.
Posted by Mike Florio on November 6, 2009 3:07 PM ET
We've experienced over the years the phenomenon of news organizations borrowing our stories without attribution.
Typically, what happens is that someone in the journalism business will use one of our stories as a starting point for their own "reporting." So then they'll get someone, either on or off the record, to "confirm" the same thing we've already reported, and then they'll report the item without acknowledging where they first saw it.
But, to our knowledge, we've never had our words cut and pasted verbatim by anything other than a small, no-name blog site or message board.
Until now.
Yesterday afternoon, our own Michael David Smith (who writes primarily for AOL's FanHouse.com) posted a blurb regarding Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter's belief, as articulated on NFL Network, that Pats quarterback Tom Brady has his own set of rules. Rich Eisen, the NFLN host extraordinaire who handled the segment with Porter, tweeted a link to the MDS story.
Several hours later, someone from "ESPN.com staff" posted the first five paragraphs of the MDS story -- word for freaking word.
Word. For freaking word.
You can do your own comparison. Here's MDS' story. And here's the ESPN.com story. (We figure that the ESPN.com link won't survive much longer. So we've got a screen grab of it.)
Despite the fact that our friend Mike Reiss' photo appears on the still-active-as-of-this-posting ESPN.com page, we're certain that this wasn't something Reiss did. Mike's character is above reproach, and my guess is that he won't be happy about this one at all. (We also assume he currently knows nothing about it.)
We're not trying to get the member of "ESPN.com staff" who lifted MDS' work product fired. But if ESPN is interested in syndicating some of our content, we think there's a better way to go about it.
You know, a way that involves paying us for it.
ESPN addresses plagiarism issue
Posted by Mike Florio on November 6, 2009 4:20 PM ET
Well, it took about an hour, but ESPN.com finally has removed from its servers the five plagiarized paragraphs from the story posted Thursday afternoon by Michael David Smith.
The ESPN.com story is now replaced with a one-paragraph blurb, and it is preceded by this message: "From the editors of ESPNBoston.com: A Thursday night blog post featuring Joey Porter's comments regarding Patriots quarterback Tom Brady should have been attributed to ProFootballTalk.com. The attribution has been corrected."
Though we're desperately trying (and possibly failing) to keep the high road within shouting distance on this one, we're not sure that the explanation -- which is missing a key word that we've yet to hear privately, either -- does the situation justice.
This wasn't a failure of attribution. It was a five-paragraph, Chris Landry-style cut and paste. As MDS pointed out in an IM exchange, the "ESPN.com staff" who did the cutting and pasting saw fit to remove the italics from the words "Around the League" and to supply quotation marks instead, which shows that this wasn't a quick and thoughtless error.
Meanwhile, PFT Planet is being heard loudly and clearly, in the comments to our first item on the plagiarism and in the comments to the ESPN.com story.
It also has sparked a minor buzz on Twitter, including an observation from the man whose interview with Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter launched this specific ship. "I'm honored that it was my smack-filled chat with Joey Porter that led to your first plagiarizing," NFLN's Rich Eisen said. "Congrats. Now go sic em."
And, to his credit, our friend Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com -- who was not responsible for the post in question -- acknowledged the matter on his Twitter feed: "I can understand where Mike Florio is coming from," Reiss said. "He should get an explanation."
Though the matter has been corrected (and we appreciate that very much), we're still waiting for the explanation.
