The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

All the News That’s Fit to Steal

Posted on | March 7, 2010 | 6 Comments

The New York Times admits to acting as a “fence” for a word thief:

Zachery Kouwe, a Times business reporter for a little over a year, resigned last month after he was accused of plagiarizing from The Wall Street Journal. . . .
Plagiarism is a mortal journalistic sin, and Kouwe’s departure was inevitable from the moment that Robert Thomson, the managing editor of The Journal, sent Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, six examples of language taken verbatim, or nearly so, from a Journal article about continuing legal fallout from Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

How does this kind of stuff keep happening? Consider the process by which Kouwe was hired:

Mr. Kouwe’s career at The Times began in November 2008. He was one of about a dozen reporters and editors who were hired to enhance the Times business-news verticals (DealBook, Your Money, Technology, etc.). At the time, the hires rankled some staffers, since the paper was in the midst of a hiring freeze and other than acquiring superstars—Peter Baker, for example—editors weren’t hiring anyone for any other section.
The hires were encouraged by the business executives at the Times Company since those blogs tend to draw traffic (and compulsive readers) that are an attractive proposition to advertisers right now.

In other words, management was trying to go cheap. Hire a bunch of relative youngsters (Kouwe is 31) at substantial savings in comparison to the salaries of senior reporters and put them into an online format with minimal editorial supervision, yet packaged and sold to readers with the brand-name prestige of the New York Times. Yet another legacy-media strategy doomed to failure.

There are several issues involved here, including the demonstrable fact that people who are too lazy to do the jobs they’re paid to do can’t be counted on to give credit to those whose work they steal.

While I’ve sometimes joked about my own laziness, I’ve never been tempted to plagiarize. If something is so good that it’s worth stealing, just quote it and give credit to the source:

“Heh,” said Professor Glenn Reynolds.

“Hmmmm,” said Allahpundit.

“Pudding,” said Ace of Spades.

And, yeah, I stole that picture of Kouwe from the Observer, which lifted it from the Times. No honor among thieves. Or, as the attorneys say, “Fair use.”

Sue me, you vicious bastards.

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Category: New York Times

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