On The Media Reaction

I was unaware that there were 2 plagiarism scandals earlier this month. I watch the news--where were these stories?? This seems to happen a lot in journalism, one of the worst examples being Stephen Glass who just completely made things up. It's clearly a problem so I was surprised to hear that there is actually software out there to stop this and newspapers AREN'T using it!

We use things like this in academics a lot (as Silverman says) and it is considered a really serious offense. Students are familiar with things like TurnItIn.com, yet the testing stops in the professional world--why?

I love the use of the term "accidental plagiarism" and Silverman's response that it is "BS most of the time." In the professional world, I'd have to agree. These people are supposed to be professional, responsible reporters who pay attention to details. Forgetting to credit a source is simply inexcusable.

But spending $5,000- $10,000 a year on these services?? Wow! With the states most newspapers are in it's no wonder they can't afford and thus do not use these services. Still, something needs to be done about this problem, the question is: what?