[UPDATE, Sept. 11, 2012: Welcome Romenesko readers. The example below is but one of many from WFMY, the latest, with an accompanying list of more than a dozen examples of plagiarism, can be found here.]
This article appears on the WFMY website under the byline "Written by Wendy Gatlin." It was not. It was copied nearly completely from this.
Here is the text of the article. The copied portions are highlighted. Notice that one thing not directly copied, the location, is wrong. Elon University School of Law is located in Greensboro, NC.
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(Elon, NC) -- Elon University School of Law announced plans today to open an Elder Law Clinic that will begin serving clients in the school's fall 2012 semester. Law students participating in the Elder Law Clinic will provide free legal counsel and services, under the supervision of law faculty, to low- and moderate-income residents of Guilford County, ages 60 and above.
"The clinic will meet a significant need among low-income elderly residents in our region, while providing law students with important experience in the practice of law," said George R. Johnson, Jr., dean and professor of law at Elon University School of Law.
The clinic will focus on the civil legal issues of older adults, such as power of attorney, end of life planning, contract and consumer issues, housing, grandparent rights, Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security benefits, and Veterans benefits.
"The clinic will provide excellent educational opportunities for our law students by exposing them to a broad range of law and client circumstances," said Associate Professor of Law Margaret Kantlehner, who will direct the clinic.
The Elder Law Clinic will serve those with a monthly household income of $1,700 or less, if single, and $2,200 or less, if married. In Guilford County, low-income elders unable to afford private legal representation are served by the Legal Aid of North Carolina-Greensboro Office, which serves a six county area. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that one in five Guilford County residents will be over age 60 by the year 2030. The Elder Law Clinic at Elon Law will help to meet a growing need for legal services within this demographic.
The Elder Law Clinic will begin considering new cases on August 15, 2012. Beginning August 15, please contact Clinic Practitioner-in-Residence, Hannah Vaughan, at (336) 279-9314 or elderlaw@elon.edu for more information.
Elon Law students also serve clients free of charge, under the supervision of faculty, through the law school's Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic and Wills Drafting Clinic. Students have additional opportunities to engage in experiential learning through the law school's leadership program and externship program, which recently expanded through a partnership with The Washington Center to offer full-semester and summer legal externship opportunities in Washington, D.C.

In fairness to Wendy, she's their social media person rather than a reporter. Chances are she posted the story from her account and because of the inflexibility of the content management system, it appends a "written by" on everything.
ReplyDeleteIs that the "I do not know how to do my job" excuse, or the "technology made me do it, I had no choice" excuse?
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting, Adam. Posts also appear as written by AP, Gannet News Service, CBS, USA Today, etc. It appears as if other options are available.
ReplyDeletePatrick, I'm thinking the latter. I don't know how their system is set up, but chances are whoever is "signed in," it shows as being "by" them. Perhaps there are special tags for AP, etc., but not ones for one-off releases like this one.
ReplyDeleteIn any case Roch, you seem pretty obsessed with seeking these things out. If you really want to take the station to task, don't accuse plagiarism ... ask why they are publishing press releases verbatim and not rewriting regardless of the byline. When I was in our newsroom in Greenville I did a lot of our daily website posting and when a release came across that I needed to post, I often rewrote it, using a lot from the original, but certainly not verbatim.
"If you really want to take the station to task, don't accuse plagiarism..."
ReplyDeleteWhy not?
Common TV practice. Often, they interview somebody and take much of what the expert they're talking to has to say, edit it out, and put in into their mouths. They didn't write or know jack, but they come off that way by taking others' words. Press releases, no different. WFMY did this to me once or twice. Must be how they teach'em.
ReplyDelete