Fort Worth Star-Telegram Reacts to a Serial Plagiarist
Citing the case of former staff writer Khalil Abdullah, who was fired in 2001 for plagiarism, then fired for the same offense this month at the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says it “will select some local stories every month and do a vigorous check of how those stories were written and researched. We’ll get in touch with every source in the story to see if they were quoted accurately and if every bit of writing in the story is either original or adequately sourced,” according to an announcement by Executive Editor Jim Witt to his staff.
“This sort of fact-checking is commonplace in the magazine business, where the deadlines don’t come every day. We can’t do it for every story, obviously, but by doing a random spot check we hope to encourage everyone in our newsroom to remember and follow the standards we have and the principles we want to uphold. The penalty for failing to do so, of course, is quite severe,” Witt’s internal memo said.
“As far as can be determined, no other newspaper in the United States has a similar policy,” David House, the paper’s reader advocate, told readers Sunday, although Mike McQueen, managing editor of the Macon Telegraph, remembers that Pete Weitzel, former managing editor of The Miami Herald, used to do such spot checks during his Miami tenure. Weitzel retired in 1995 after 37 years at the paper.
House also disclosed that the paper is still checking the work of Abdullah, 31, who was president of the Middle Georgia Association of Black Journalists when he was fired in Macon on March 5. Both the Telegraph and Star-Telegram are Knight Ridder papers.
House wrote:
“Managing Editor Lois Norder of the Star-Telegram said: ‘Abdullah was fired at the Star-Telegram after editors learned that content in his reportage for an unpublished article was similar to material published earlier in The Boston Globe and The New York Times and that a Dallas Morning News reporter complained that Abdullah had lifted parts of a story of hers.’
“Norder, who was editor then of the Northeast Tarrant edition, where Abdullah covered municipalities and school districts, now is in charge of the Star-Telegram’s investigative team.
“Managing Editor Larry Lutz, editor of the Arlington Star-Telegram, became editor of the Northeast Tarrant edition as well last May. He and Director of News Research Stacy Garcia have been examining Abdullah’s 183 bylined stories in the Star-Telegram’s database.
“In light of the Macon newspaper’s findings, Lutz and Garcia are reviewing Abdullah’s use of sources outside of Tarrant County and verifying the extent to which his stories were based on original reporting. At least four of the stories have contained questionable content, which Garcia will note permanently at the top of each file in the newspaper’s internal electronic archives.”
. . . Macon Finds More Than 40 Plagiarized Stories
Meanwhile, the Macon Telegraph has found that more than 40 of the 200-plus stories written by fired reporter Khalil Abdullah contained plagiarized material, Managing Editor Mike McQueen told Journal-isms today.
McQueen said the paper wanted to find out if any facts were fabricated or sources invented. It did not find that.
He also said that a newsroom committee had completed its recommendations for preventing such occurrences, which include “tightening up on hiring procedures,” and “checking all clips of any applicant for signs of plagiarism” or other journalistic crimes. McQueen added that “our staff will be comfortable with spot or random checks” of reporters’ work, similar to the policy the Fort Worth Star-Telegram just articulated.
“We will be very deliberate and very inclusive,” involving the entire newsroom in the process of adopting new procedures, McQueen said, saying that Executive Editor Sherrie Marshall is meeting with the newsroom staff this week.
As reported at the time, the committee was created after the newsroom staff of 70 at the 69,000-circulation paper was stunned and angry when it learned of Abdullah’s plagiarism. At the time, 20 instances had been discovered.
Abdullah, meanwhile, was contrite, telling Journal-isms then that “my emotions have run the gamut, regretful and embarrassed and really ashamed.”
Writers Say Blair’s Race Gave Story “Extra Energy”
Everyone belongs to one race or another, but “the race angle” — meaning Jayson Blair’s race — gave his story the “extra energy” that Jack Kelley’s story, and his race, didn’t provide, reporters on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” show agreed Sunday.
Blair, the former New York Times reporter, is African American; Kelley, the former USA Today reporter, is white. Both were found by their news organizations to have fabricated material that was passed off to editors and readers as genuine.
Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post media reporter who hosts “Reliable Sources,” asked on the show, “If it is the case that it is at least as bad and probably worse than Blair, why is Jack Kelley’s getting just barely a fraction of the media attention?”
After discussing the status of the Times vs. USA Today and the fact that Blair’s case led to the resignation of the Times’ top two editors, Kurtz said: “But isn’t there also the question of race? I mean, there was a whole affirmative action debate about Jayson Blair?
Replied Donatella Lorch, who now directs the Knight International Press Fellowships: “There could be, probably. I mean, it’s just been — Jack Kelley has been swept under the rug. If I talk to people who aren’t journalists, they haven’t even heard about him.
“KURTZ: Because it doesn’t get much coverage on television.
“LORCH: No.
“KURTZ: It certainly got a lot of coverage . . .
“CHARLES LANE, Washington Post reporter: No, I think you’re right. The race angle gave it a little bit extra energy, that story.”
Why I interviewed Blair on the air (Brian Lehrer, Newsday)
I couldn’t finish the book (Jerry Large, Seattle Times)
Plagiarism part of larger cultural problem (Michael Hill, Baltimore Sun)
Barnicle Apologizes for “Mandingo” Remark
“In response to protests by the NAACP and other groups, Mike Barnicle read a 17-minute apology on his radio show yesterday for using a racially and sexually charged word to describe Janet Langhart, a former Channel 5 news personality,” Suzanne C. Ryan reported Saturday in the Boston Globe.
“Barnicle used the word ‘Mandingo’ on Tuesday to describe Langhart — who is African-American and married to former secretary of defense William S. Cohen, who is white — on WTKK-FM (96.9). Mandingos, or Mandes, are members of a group of West African people. ‘Mandingo’ is also the title of a 1975 movie in which a black male slave is paired intimately with a white female slave master.
“Barnicle, who resigned his post as a Globe columnist in 1998 amid questions about his sources, said he decided to apologize on the air because he understands ‘how someone might think it was offensive.
“Howard Manly, president of the Boston Association of Black Journalists and a former Globe reporter who is now a columnist at the Boston Herald, said he suggested to [WTKK general manager Matt] Mills this week that the station examine its record of minority hires as a means to combat ‘this kind of ignorance.’
“Manly said he plans to meet with Mills next week, with resumes from African-Americans in hand. ‘For them to suggest that they can’t find anybody is insulting, ludicrous, and more of a problem than the actual words Barnicle said on the air,’ Manly said.”
Hollis Towns Gets ME Job at Cincinnati Enquirer
Hollis Towns, managing editor at Michigan’s Kalamazoo Gazette, has been named managing editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, editor Tom Callinan announced to his staff Friday.
Towns, 40, is a graduate of historically black Fort Valley State University in Georgia who went to work at the Detroit Free Press as a sophomore, thanks to a National Association of Black Journalists internship.
In his junior year, he had another internship at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He returned there after his 1988 graduation and moved up to assistant city editor. In 2000, he went to the Kalamazoo Gazette, a Newhouse paper with a daily circulation of about 62,000. The Enquirer’s daily circulation is 215,222.
In 1999, the Columbia Journalism Review used Towns’ work at the AJC to illustrate a debate over whether papers should have a race-relations beat.
“An eleven-year veteran of the paper, Towns reported on church burnings, black voting patterns, and the legacy of the Million Man March. He traveled to Alabama to talk with the men and women who had participated in the Montgomery bus boycott forty years earlier. And he wrote an intimate profile of Coretta Scott King, the product of her first in-depth interview in several years,” Barry Yeoman wrote.
“Towns was pleased with his work, and so were his bosses. He considered nothing sacred, writing articles critical of revered groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Center for Democratic Renewal,” the story said.
Towns said today he thought the Cincinnati paper had moved beyond the 1998 scandal in which the Gannett-owned daily published, then renounced, stories that were critical of the business practices of Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International Inc., publishing a front-page apology, paying a $14 million settlement to Chiquita and firing the lead reporter, Michael Gallagher, who admitted stealing Chiquita’s voice mail messages. A new management team is in place, Towns said. He starts May 10.
NPR Tried to Spin With the Best of Them
When National Public Radio announced last Tuesday that Bob Edwards would be leaving as host of “Morning Edition,” the show he had hosted since its 1979 inception, it gave no clue that the move wasn’t voluntary.
It proved once again that media organizations can spin just as well as the people they cover — and that didn’t go unnoticed by some NPR affiliates.
“Look, IÂ?ve been as critical as anyone of NPR over the years, and god willing, I will be for years to come,” reads one of the many messages to NPR. “NPR has made lots of mistakes over the years. They blew this . . . NPR is trying to ‘handle’ stations. First they attempt spin control in misleading us with what happened. We get a slight advanced notice that Bob is leaving via e-mail. It is worded to clearly imply this is his idea or at least mutual. There is no suggestion that it wasnÂ?t BobÂ?s idea. Then phone calls to apparently all PDs. If this is so damned important, why are you calling my PD. Call me. As it happens my PD is in San Diego having fun, lucky him! So I got the call. That e-mail and that phone call should have told us exactly what the situation was so we could decide how to handle it locally. It was insanely naﶥ of NPR to think they could handle this story, let along handle the stations.
“WeÂ?ve been having this huge discussion of our new mutual efforts between stations and NPR. Yet again when the pressure is on, NPR is trying to spin us . . . unsuccessfully thanks to the AP. And letÂ?s be straight about something, IÂ?m a journalist by trade. I donÂ?t want any spin. I want the truth. If stations want to spin the news, which I personally think is a mistake; they certainly have the skill to do so. We donÂ?t need NPR or DEI sending us reams of instructs of how best to do it. Tell us the truth.
“My god, I sometimes think people move to Washington and immediately begin to think that stations are run by 12 year olds that ought not to be out after dark. We face tough issues every day. Let me tell you the year our institution cut $350,000 out of our budget while CPB was also cutting our budget was a crisis, not who hosts Morning Edition. ItÂ?s our decision of how best to handle the issues for our stations. If we really are going to have this new partnership we need honesty. Let us know whatÂ?s happening.
“And by the way when it comes to spin control, as all you West Wing fans know, you canÂ?t spin it if you donÂ?t know the whole story.”
Tracey Neale Changes D.C. Stations; Dhindsa Out
“Tracey Neale is in and Gurvir Dhindsa is out as evening news co-anchor at Channel 9,” Washington Post reporter John Maynard wrote Friday.
“WUSA announced yesterday that Neale, news anchor at WTTG (Channel 5) for the past nine years, will team with Gordon Peterson at the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate.
“Neale probably will start on the 6 and 11 p.m. news this summer, although WUSA General Manager Darryll Green said the exact timing will be determined later.
“Soon after Neale’s contract with WTTG expired in December, WUSA made her an offer. WTTG matched the offer but Neale decided not to stay.”
Spanish-to-English Switch Hasn’t Been Easy
“Ericka Pino is a familiar face — and voice — to viewers of Univision’s Spanish-language station WXTV/Ch.41,” Richard Huff writes in the New York Daily News.
“Now, Pino is becoming familiar to a larger audience, but her transition to WNYW/Ch.5 on ‘Good Day New York,’ where she started appearing a few weeks ago, hasn’t been easy.
“After four years of reporting traffic and weather in Spanish, getting into the swing of broadcasting in English has been a challenge.
“‘I never really prepared myself to work in English,’ said Pino, 25, who was born in Peru and came here when she was 10. She grew up watching Spanish-language television.
“‘It’s been real tough, but it’s not like I have to learn English,’ she told the Daily News. ‘It’s just cleaning it out a little bit. It’s like the same thing as if I came from South Carolina.’
“She now spends an hour a day working on her English — and has used both a coach and language tapes.
“Her appeal to Spanish-speaking viewers can’t be underestimated. Every station in town has been trying to appeal to the growing Hispanic population, which has been tuned into the Spanish-language stations in large numbers.
“‘The people who know who Ericka Pino is are the people working in the back of the restaurants or the guy across the street parking my car,’ she said. ‘They know who I am. Now they’re watching Ch.5.'”
Nielsen Accused of Black, Latino Undercount
“A group of Congressional representatives Thursday raised questions about the accuracy of Nielsen Media Research’s ratings for Hispanic TV viewers. In a letter to Susan Whiting, president and CEO of Nielsen, the group called for the TV ratings firm, which is owned by Mediaweek parent VNU, to seek ‘an external audit of the [ratings] system,'” Katy Bachman writes in Media Week.
“The letter, dated March 25 and signed by Representatives Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), John Dingell (D-Mich.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Charles Gonzalez (D-Tex.), cited a recent study commissioned by the National Latino Media Council that concluded Nielsen undercounted Latino TV viewing, especially those who watch Anglo TV programs.
Meanwhile, in New York, “Hiram Monserrate, co-chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, and Council Speaker Gifford Miller were joined by members of the City Council to announce the introduction of a resolution calling on Nielsen Media Research to delay the introduction of Local People Meters (LPMs) in New York City until Nielsen can ensure the fair and accurate counting of New York CityÂ?s diverse viewers with this new system,” according to a news release.
“Despite overwhelming evidence that Local People Meters (LPMs) undercount African American and Latino viewers, Nielsen Media Research previously disclosed its plan to roll out LPMs in New York. During a sample test of New York City LPMs conducted by Nielsen in February 2004, top-rated programs among African American and Latino viewers experienced an unexplained drop in viewership by more than 60% compared to NielsenÂ?s current system.”
Local TV Health News Found Ailing
“Local TV news coverage of health and medical stories is ailing, according to a new University of Minnesota study,” reports Deborah Caulfield Rybak in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.
“Among the ‘troublesome trends’: stories that are too short, too sensationalized, use only one source and are reported by journalists who don’t regularly cover the topic.
“Assistant professor of journalism Gary Schwitzer reviewed 840 health and medical news stories aired from February to May 2003 on the four largest Twin Cities stations. None of the stations received high marks.
“Such a study ‘is important when you consider that most Americans in most surveys get most of their health care info from TV, yet television rates as one of the least trusted sources of health information,’ said Schwitzer, who once headed CNN’s medical news unit. ‘I wanted to get hard data and hold up a mirror to show news decisionmakers what in fact they are doing.'”
Al Roker Colonoscopy to Be Televised
“Because one celebrity colonoscopy just isn’t enough, NBC’s “Today” show has scheduled its second celebrity colonoscopy for April 2,” writes Lisa DeMoraes in the Washington Post.
“Having already made a TV star out of Katie Couric’s colon in 2000, NBC News has rounded up the colon of jolly weatherman Al Roker for this year’s experiment in uncomfortable-making television.
“Yes, Roker is the one having his colon probed on national television. But the camera will be firmly affixed on Couric, who ‘will be with him as he prepares the night before and then with him for the exam,’ the news division said in its news release.
Player to Join Author of Book on Blacks in Hockey
“As The News & Observer’s hockey beat writer for two seasons, Cecil Harris was one of only a handful of black journalists to ever cover the league,” the Raleigh paper noted Sunday.
“His new book, ‘Breaking the Ice,’ chronicles the stories of black NHL players, including Carolina Hurricanes goalie Kevin Weekes.
“Harris is one of four black writers to cover the league in recent years; only one, David Neal of the Miami Herald, is now assigned to hockey.
“Although Weekes is a subject, not an author, of the book, the subject matter is important enough to him that he will join Harris at Books-A-Million on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh on Wednesday from 7-9 p.m.”
Indicted Ex-Cincy Reporter Asks Change of Venue
Former Cincinnati television reporter Stephen Hill’s trial on charges that he sexually abused teenagers has been set for trial June 7, the Cincinnati Post reports.
Hill’s lawyer, Ken “Lawson, who has held two press conferences about the allegations against Hill, told the judge Friday he wants the trial moved out of Hamilton County, saying Hill can only get a fair trial in another county,” Kimball Perry wrote.
“Davis set an April 19 date to hear a Lawson motion to suppress evidence — 18 videotapes, including six that police said Hill tried to destroy Feb. 27 as officers arrived at his house. Police said he dunked the tapes in a bucket of what was believed to be cleaning solution.” Perry’s story graphically describes the nature of the tapes.
