Nick Farrell in the article "Paper fires journalist" (The Inquirer) reports that Tim Ryan, an entertainment reporter who worked for 22 years for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, was fired for using too much material from Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, and from other online sources, without citing them. Apparently, as Farrell notes, Ryan was not fired after Wikipedia brought the plagiarism to the attention of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin but after other news media began to report on Ryan's plagiarism.
It is interesting that Ryan was not fired immediately. We don't know the reasoning for the timing of the firing, but it gives an impression that's rather negative for the newspaper. Combined with Olesker's firing in a short period of time, one might wonder how rampant plagiarism is among the news media. According to Jerry Ceppos, former executive at Knight Ridder, the U.S.'s second largest newspaper chain, it is "widespread" and is a problem with "every American newspaper" (John McManus, "Plagiarism a widespread problem at newspapers," Grade the News).
Obviously, a lapse of ethics isn't limited to news agencies. I recently posted on the comments in the Chronicle of Higher Education of Philip Langlais, vice provost and director of research at Old Dominion University, about the problems of ethics in academia ("Scholarship and ethics"). So, I won't say more here, other than perhap we should pay more attention to the character education movement in the U.S. and abroad.
It is interesting that Ryan was not fired immediately. We don't know the reasoning for the timing of the firing, but it gives an impression that's rather negative for the newspaper. Combined with Olesker's firing in a short period of time, one might wonder how rampant plagiarism is among the news media. According to Jerry Ceppos, former executive at Knight Ridder, the U.S.'s second largest newspaper chain, it is "widespread" and is a problem with "every American newspaper" (John McManus, "Plagiarism a widespread problem at newspapers," Grade the News).
Obviously, a lapse of ethics isn't limited to news agencies. I recently posted on the comments in the Chronicle of Higher Education of Philip Langlais, vice provost and director of research at Old Dominion University, about the problems of ethics in academia ("Scholarship and ethics"). So, I won't say more here, other than perhap we should pay more attention to the character education movement in the U.S. and abroad.
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