Sunday, April 22, 2007

Don't forget the Couric plagiarism matter

On the Couric plagiarism matter, the Chicago Tribune wrote:

CBS News chief Sean McManus is vowing reforms for CBSNews.com after Katie Couric's Notebook on the site included a plagiarized commentary, mostly written by a since-fired Web producer.

"People have the right to expect, if your name is on a product, that you wrote that," McManus said.


Hmmm, if the judge's name is on the opinion, is there an expectation that the judge wrote it? But further note that the Chicago Tribune is a little vague about the "what" was plagiarized: the producer plagiarized from the Wall Street Journal, and Couric plagiarized from the producer. Recall, this was supposed to be "personal," about getting one's first library card.

The LA Times noted that the Imus matter overshadowed the Couric plagiarism:

Memo to Katie Couric: You should send flowers to Don Imus.

No, not so the shock jock might spill his guts to her in the inevitable comeback-trail interview. Instead, Couric should be grateful that last week's Imus uproar took the heat off "CBS Evening News" for its own embarrassing ethical lapse, this one involving plagiarism and other brands of deception. America, luckily for the former "Today" show co-host, has room for only one media scandal at a time.

But it would be unwise to bury the Couric case, because it underscores some of the trouble the news business is having managing new media (especially blogs and "vlogs"), not to mention its apparent need to mimic the rest of American business in over-marketing everything.


See also:
http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/04/more-on-couric-matter-etc.html

**
One blogger wrote (of the producer)

Rosenthal at the Chicago Tribune is the first person to get a real quote from Couric since the plagairism issue. But her response seems tepid. Couric doesn't apologize, either. The CBS producer who was fired, according to reports, is 32, received a bachelor's from Wesleyan, a graduate degree from Columbia (which has a good journalism school, tho not sure about her degree), and has worked at CNN and the New York Times. She was also scheduled to teach a course on MediaBistro. Does that seem like a person who would be 'inexperienced in the tenets of basic journalism'?

The Daily News put an interesting twist on the story:

Melissa McNamara, 32, was axed from the tarnished Tiffany network last Monday night after it was discovered she'd ripped off a Wall Street Journal column for the April 4 installment of "Katie Couric's Notebook."

(...)
The New York Sun outed McNamara on Thursday, citing CBS sources.

In a weird twist, McNamara's twin sister, Tracy McNamara, was canned from Woman's World after being caught plagiarizing from Self magazine in January, a source told the Post.

(...)

Both women are graduates of Wesleyan University who have master's degrees from Columbia University.

And they both have lengthy résumés chock full of high-profile media gigs.

UPDATE:

Note the link
http://newton.typepad.com/content/2006/09/katie_courics_b.html

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