Worcester Telegram & Gazette Plagiarized Herald
Boston Daily has learned that the Worcester Telegram & Gazette recently ran an editorial that contained a quote lifted directly from the Boston Herald without attribution.
“It was an oversight, basically,” said Telegram Editorial Page Editor George French.
Last Friday, the Telegram printed an editorial titled “To Kill Again?” The editorial was about convicted killer Daniel Tavares who, a few weeks after being released from a Massachusetts prison, killed a Washington state couple. The Telegram story begins with this quote by the father of the slain woman:
Darrel Slater said, “It’s because of stupidity in Massachusetts that my daughter is dead. … How does a guy who killed his mother, gets charged with more crimes, get out of jail? How can he leave the state?”
Two days earlier, the same quote appeared word-for-word in a Herald story penned by Michele McPhee and Jessica Van Sack:
“It’s because of stupidity in Massachusetts that my daughter is dead,” said Darrel Slater, 55… “How does a guy who killed his mother, get charged with more crimes, get out of jail? How can he leave the state?”
Reached this morning at the Telegram office, French told Boston Daily that he’d spoken with McPhee, but that the Telegram had no plans to run a correction or an apology at this point. The Telegram is owned by the New York Times Company, which also owns the Herald’s chief competitor, the Boston Globe.
When asked whether it was standard practice for the Telegram to use another paper’s reporting without attribution, French said, “No, no it’s not. I really can’t…this is something we’ve covered with our own reporters, but we use, we look at material from other sources. This is something we take very seriously. We used the Herald as a source [last] Saturday with full attribution.”
French said that he alone was responsible for the mistake, and that he would talk with the Telegram’s publisher about the error, though he hasn’t yet. In 2005, Telegram reporter Ken Powers was fired after lifting material from Sports Illustrated’s Peter King in a column about the Patriots.
UPDATE: George French just called. He said the Telegram has posted an “amplification” on its website that credits the Herald. He also said the same language will run in tomorrow’s print edition. Meanwhile, the Herald has weighed in.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Prior to all the downsizing that is facing the print media, The Worcester Telegram was a great newspaper. The sale of the paper like The Globe to The New York Times has given these papers non local ownership. The Taylor family at the Globe were unique in the industry. The former Stoddard family who owned the Telegram were most unique.
The Telegram lead owner was a high ranking member of the John Birch Society. However, as time went by, there was an independence in the newsroom and reporters with a separation from the editorial page that was evident and good for the readers. There are many great reporters that traveled through that news room.
However, the editorial page and many of that staff is another long story. Unobjective, belligerant,narrow minded in ultra right wing philosophy and with politicians enamored. There has been some thaw since the first sale to the San Francisco Chronicle and now the New York Times. Through the years depending on the corporate, big business slant,good or bad,no other positions were allowed except what appears to be cursory. Open Elitism and arrogrance by some of the staff prevailed.
This great newspaper that we in the greater Worcester Region grew up with had several local bureaus and offices throughout its area of coverage well staffed reporting with local editions and much local news. That has changed with diminished staff allocated and bureaus closed due to the shrinkage of revenue and need to balance the books in the chain other revenue losing newspapers.
Hopefully, the charges being made will be addressed and corrected.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:24 am
” Unobjective, belligerant (sic),narrow minded in ultra right wing philosophy”
Well, NYT ownership should fix that!