I have noticed more and more often over the last few years that media outlets tend to copy each others stories, i.e. someone does a story on topic A and two days later same story covered in exactly the same way by another TV news network or newspaper. But this morning I read a Jeff Jacoby article in the Globe that I thought was an especially disturbing example of this trend. Jacoby opinion piece, which slams liberals for not engaging in as much “enlightened” debate as conservatives, was to me almost the same piece that a writer from the Hoover Institute (Peter Berkowitz) wrote for the Wall Street Journal on May 29. Both writers are analytically challenged (is debating an issue always a sign of enlightenment? Of course not. Do Dems have legitimate differences of opinion on a host of topics — of course.) but what disturbed me most is Jacoby essentially wrote the same article without attributing the original article. In college this would be considered plagiarism. Both articles are referenced below. Any thoughts?
Jeff criticizes liberals for not having broad opinions on Iraq by copying the critique from another conservative.
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BTW, what ethical issue did Jeff get suspended for a few years back?
Thanks for the alert about Jacoby’s previous lapses — the reference below is from his wikipedia profile. Type Jacoby and “suspended by Globe” and you get a number of hits. Amazing.
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In 2000, Jacoby was suspended by the Boston Globe for failing to disclose the fact that one of his articles was authored by someone else.[2] The article in question was emailed to him and Jacoby did not attribute it to the original author.
I guess now we know that Jeff Jacoby’s opinions are spoon fed to him by the Hoover Institute.
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Goo!
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Jacoby, and the Hoover Institute, are simply trying to put a good spin on the fact that the conservative coalition has cracked and that even stalwarts of the GOP are running away from the Bush doctrine.
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This at least clarifies that Jacoby is still firmly tethered to his superiors, though I suspect he’s a bit perplexed trying to figure out exactly how the hierarchy is ordered and who he’s supposed to be reporting to.
Jeff Jacoby got caught cheating.
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How many strikes does he get before he’s out?
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Seriously, though, the media does this to bloggers every day. If a blogger wrote it, came up with the angle and broke the story, it’s okay to ignore them.
…Jacoby had pretty much copied the contents of an email that had been circulating around the internet. Whether or not that might be considered plagiarism, his primary failure was that he neglected to check the veracity of the contents, and it was the fact that the contents of the email were incorrect.
This is EXACTLY the sort of thing that got Jacoby suspended a few years ago. I talked about it in detail over at my blog.
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He took someone’s idea without attributing that person in his own column.
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However, it went beyond that: He used many similar introductory sentences, the same Lieberman quip, the same issues to consider… the same, same, same, same, same.
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The only thing that’s different is he shortened it a bit and intellectually dumbed it down. Maybe he threw in a bit of his own style at the beginning. However, it’s almost the same thing. That WOULD have been okay, if he attributed the original idea to wherever he got it from, but he didn’t. Columnists do this a lot, but this example goes beyond anything of the sort that I’ve seen from them before.
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He should at least be suspended again, if not fired for repeating his mistake in 2000. If I handed in this as an essay in college and my professor had read or found that WSJ piece, I would have flunked the paper and maybe even the class.
Thanks for the great posts to my original comment. Now can we get some type of momentum to call out the Globe on Jacoby’s blatant idea theft. I’ve already e-mailed the Globe at letter@globe.com — any other ideas on how we can highlight this? Will any of you also write to the Globe on this matter. Jacoby is the most sanctimonious writer in town, and if we don’t seize the opportunity I’ll be kicking myself when he’s calling out Dem presidential candidates 6 months from now for “ethically challenged” behavior.
Here’s a copy of my e-mail to the Globe — feel free to use or modify
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Dear Editors,
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Could you please comment on the similarities between Jeff Jacoby’s piece on June 20 (The Fight’s on the Right) and an opinion piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on May 29 by Peter Berkowitz (The Conservative Mind). I was too busy to write immediately after reading Mr. Jacoby’s article, but as a daily reader of both the Globe and Journal I recognized Mr. Jacoby’s unoriginal idea the moment I read it. If Mr. Jacoby were a college student, he would immediately be disciplined for plagiarism — not only is his article stating the same theme that Mr. Berkowitz stated (Conservatives embrace debate), but Mr. Jacoby even uses the same examples, e.g. Iraq and abortion, and they even both highlight Joe Lieberman. I have attached links to both articles and look forward to a response.
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http://www.boston.co…
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http://opinionjourna…