A press release I never in a million years imagined would apply to the Hartford Courant:
INDIANAPOLIS – The Society of Professional Journalists’ Ethics Committee released the following statement regarding the Hartford Courant’s recent admission of and apology for using other newspaper’s stories without duly attributing credit. The statement issued by the committee is as follows:
The Hartford Courant has acknowledged using stories from other Connecticut newspapers recently without giving them credit. The director of content has apologized and vowed the mistake won’t be repeated.
The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists plainly exhorts newspapers and journalists, “Never plagiarize.” When a newspaper invests reporting and editing time to produce a story, that story should not be used by another outlet without permission and without informing readers who actually did the work.
Many media outlets aggregate information online, summarizing a story and then linking to the original. The Courant failed to carry the credit from its online version to its print version.
“However it happened, the Courant violated fundamental standards,” said Andy Schotz, the chairman of SPJ’s Ethics Committee. “This was theft.”
Integrity and credibility, two of the most important values in journalism, demand that all media outlets be clear about the source of stories they did not produce. Failure to follow that guideline results in plagiarism, taking credit for someone else’s work, as it did in this case.
SPJ admonishes all media outlets to take special care so that proper attribution is given at all times – especially when working with multiple news delivery platforms. For help in making strong ethical decisions, please consult the Society’s Code of Ethics (www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp) or call SPJ’s Ethics Hotline at (317) 927-8000, ext. 208.
Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well- informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.
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It was really nice of SPJ to email its missive to everyone of us on the staff. We’re embarassed about this aggregation mess and many of us have been recipients of crap about it from sources and people in the community.
We did nothing to bring this onto the paper, but we’re the ones dealing with the aftermath. The JI broadly painting us all as plagiarists — no doubt intentionally — doesn’t help either.
So thanks to SPJ for a very classy kick to the teeth.
Dave is absolutely right when he stated the reporters at the Courant did nothing to bring this onto the paper. It’s pretty obvious that management brought it on, and therefore those folks should bear the brunt of the blame. In this situation, however, employees are undeservingly guilty by association. For that, the Courant’s hard-working and ethical journalists can thank the marketing people who run the paper for being more profit-driven than content-driven.
With regards to the classy kick in the teeth, I can assure you that the Society of Professional Journalists did not email this release to staff members.
SPJ created the release as you see above, making its point, but we do not possess the names and email addresses of your people.
I’m sorry that this is the impression it leaves and I agree that this should not a total condemnation of your people. For an answer as to how this got to all staff members, it’s probably best to look from within, but know that it has never been our policy to mail our comments. We post them on the web site.
The larger question we all need to wrestle with is how do we create better environments in newsrooms where this isn’t even considered. Instead of pointing any more fingers we need to work on changing the conditions that lead to this sort of thing.
Thanks for listening.
Kevin Z. Smith
President, SPJ
The copy I received, and that damned near all of my colleagues received, was sent by:
Karen Grabowski with the email address kgrabowski@hq.spj.org.
If that is not the email address for SPJ’s communications director, I apologize.
Dave Owens
Really, Dave? Blaming the media? That’s very Youkilis of you.