If you've been following the story of John Merrill, the professor emeritus at the University of Missouri who was relieved of his column in the Columbia Missourian after lifting quotes from a student paper, you should read this piece on the Poynter site.
The article, written by four University of Missouri journalism professors, responds to criticisms that Columbia Missourian Editor Tom Warhover overreacted in publicly humiliating Merrill and stripping him of his weekly column for what some have said is a "misdemeanor" offense. The piece lays out what happened and why Merrill's actions violated the newspaper's and the school's policies on plagiarism.
The Poynter piece includes links to other stories and columns, which offer a variety of perspectives on the incident. This is material for a great journalism ethics lesson because it reaches into gray areas. Read it and discuss it with your students, professors and colleagues.
Ironically, this may end up Merrill's greatest legacy as a journalism educator. I suspect journalism students will be talking about this case for years to come, debating whether lifting quotes for a column is truly plagiarism and how editors should respond when it happens. Perhaps this case will do more to instill the values of journalism than anything Merrill taught in his classroom.
Showing posts with label Columbia Missourian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Columbia Missourian. Show all posts
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Journalism prof responds to plagiarism charge
John Merrill, the University of Missouri-Columbia journalism professor who admitted to lifting quotes from a student newspaper last week, published a response to the incident in Wednesday's Columbia Missourian.
Titled "Carelessness is not Plagiarism," the piece begins: "After some 60 years of dedicated service to journalism and teaching, I must admit that I am almost traumatized by the recent tempest in a teapot incident related to what The Missourian editor has called my plagiarism. I have written and edited more than 30 books, articles for journals and newspapers, and a column in The Missourian for three years, and this is the first time I have been accused of plagiarism. The media have stressed the monolithic negative of the term 'plagiarism' and have not attempted to consider ethical and semantic aspects of the story. So I am left in public view as a villain, a linguistic thief, or worse."
Merrill, a journalism professor emeritus at the University of Missouri, was relieved of his weekly Sunday column for the Columbia Missourian, a community paper written by students, last week after editors found he had used quotes from The Maneater, the independent student newspaper in town, without attribution. (You can read about the incident in this earlier blog post.)
Merrill contends that taking quotes without attribution is not plagiarism but simply carelessness.
"I did not lift any sentences or paragraphs from anybody else’s writing," he writes. "I look on these short, directly quoted expressions from the two women in the news story as 'news-facts' and see them as in the public domain. Certainly, if what I did is plagiarism, it was unintentional and could, at the most, be considered technical, not unethical."
The piece has a number of comments, mostly from Merrill supporters.
What do you think? Is lifting quotes plagiarism or just carelessness? Was the Columbia Missourian right to take away Merrill's column or did the editors make a "tempest in a teapot," as Merrill contends? Post a comment below.
Titled "Carelessness is not Plagiarism," the piece begins: "After some 60 years of dedicated service to journalism and teaching, I must admit that I am almost traumatized by the recent tempest in a teapot incident related to what The Missourian editor has called my plagiarism. I have written and edited more than 30 books, articles for journals and newspapers, and a column in The Missourian for three years, and this is the first time I have been accused of plagiarism. The media have stressed the monolithic negative of the term 'plagiarism' and have not attempted to consider ethical and semantic aspects of the story. So I am left in public view as a villain, a linguistic thief, or worse."
Merrill, a journalism professor emeritus at the University of Missouri, was relieved of his weekly Sunday column for the Columbia Missourian, a community paper written by students, last week after editors found he had used quotes from The Maneater, the independent student newspaper in town, without attribution. (You can read about the incident in this earlier blog post.)
Merrill contends that taking quotes without attribution is not plagiarism but simply carelessness.
"I did not lift any sentences or paragraphs from anybody else’s writing," he writes. "I look on these short, directly quoted expressions from the two women in the news story as 'news-facts' and see them as in the public domain. Certainly, if what I did is plagiarism, it was unintentional and could, at the most, be considered technical, not unethical."
The piece has a number of comments, mostly from Merrill supporters.
What do you think? Is lifting quotes plagiarism or just carelessness? Was the Columbia Missourian right to take away Merrill's column or did the editors make a "tempest in a teapot," as Merrill contends? Post a comment below.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Journalism professor plagiarizes from student paper
A prominent University of Missouri-Columbia journalism professor has taught his students a powerful lesson in plagiarism by stealing information from a student newspaper and passing it off as his own.
John Merrill, a professor emeritus at the university's School of Journalism, was relieved last week of the Sunday column he wrote for the Columbia Missourian, a community newspaper written by students, after it was revealed that he lifted quotes and other phrases from an article in The Maneater, the independent student newspaper that serves the Columbia campus.
In a Nov. 9 letter to readers, Tom Warhover, the Columbia Missourian's executive editor for innovation, explained that Merrill's Nov. 4 column about the university's women's and gender studies program "used three quotes and other phrases taken directly from an Oct. 5 article in The Maneater."
"Several journalists and journalism educators I spoke with referred to the use as the ethical equivalent of a misdemeanor, not a felony," Warhover wrote. "I believe the Missourian, and the School of Journalism, must hold itself to a higher standard."
Warhover's column quotes a letter of apology from Merrill:
“Let me say first that I am truly sorry about the plagiarism in my column about Women’s and Gender Studies,” Merrill wrote. “I thought I had mentioned The Maneater as the source from which I got the few and scattered quotes I used to spin off into my column. I always am sensitive to that. I thought I had done it in that column and was really surprised, when you called me in, to find that I had neglected to do this.
“But I assure you that it was ‘unintentional’ plagiarism, and I had no reason to make it look as if I got these quotes from the sources directly. I was using them as a springboard for my opinion. But I did it, and I’m sorry. Careless, I’ll admit, but not intentional. All these dozens and dozens of columns and some 30 books and innumerable magazine and newspaper articles and never before have I been accused of plagiarism.”
Missourian editors examined Merrill's columns from the past year and found five more columns in which at least one quote had been taken from other publications without attribution, Warhover wrote.
"Missourian policy does not allow any writer to appropriate someone else's words as his own, even when those words are within quotation marks," he wrote.
Update: Read about Merrill's response here.
Hat tip to Scot Tucker of San Francisco State University for alerting us to this story.
John Merrill, a professor emeritus at the university's School of Journalism, was relieved last week of the Sunday column he wrote for the Columbia Missourian, a community newspaper written by students, after it was revealed that he lifted quotes and other phrases from an article in The Maneater, the independent student newspaper that serves the Columbia campus.In a Nov. 9 letter to readers, Tom Warhover, the Columbia Missourian's executive editor for innovation, explained that Merrill's Nov. 4 column about the university's women's and gender studies program "used three quotes and other phrases taken directly from an Oct. 5 article in The Maneater."
"Several journalists and journalism educators I spoke with referred to the use as the ethical equivalent of a misdemeanor, not a felony," Warhover wrote. "I believe the Missourian, and the School of Journalism, must hold itself to a higher standard."
Warhover's column quotes a letter of apology from Merrill:
“Let me say first that I am truly sorry about the plagiarism in my column about Women’s and Gender Studies,” Merrill wrote. “I thought I had mentioned The Maneater as the source from which I got the few and scattered quotes I used to spin off into my column. I always am sensitive to that. I thought I had done it in that column and was really surprised, when you called me in, to find that I had neglected to do this.
“But I assure you that it was ‘unintentional’ plagiarism, and I had no reason to make it look as if I got these quotes from the sources directly. I was using them as a springboard for my opinion. But I did it, and I’m sorry. Careless, I’ll admit, but not intentional. All these dozens and dozens of columns and some 30 books and innumerable magazine and newspaper articles and never before have I been accused of plagiarism.”
Missourian editors examined Merrill's columns from the past year and found five more columns in which at least one quote had been taken from other publications without attribution, Warhover wrote.
"Missourian policy does not allow any writer to appropriate someone else's words as his own, even when those words are within quotation marks," he wrote.
Update: Read about Merrill's response here.
Hat tip to Scot Tucker of San Francisco State University for alerting us to this story.
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