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Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 11/16/2007 9:49:32 AM
Title: Professor emeritus deserves more respect
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From EDWARD WASSERMAN, Knight Professor of Journalism Ethics, Washington and Lee University: Plagiarism is one of my academic interests, so the Missourian's decision to fire John Merrill -- an important figure in the development of journalism ethics -- for using previously published quotes was big news to me. Having reviewed the various articles, I have to say I think the ethical basis for his dismissal was flimsy and the firing unwarranted.

The notion that quotes must always be credited to where they initially
appeared sounds right, but whether it's ethically required is a more
complicated question.

Sometimes it clearly is. For instance, if the quotes are in dispute or are controversial, it is essential to indicate where they came from so the reader can judge whether to believe the words were actually spoken
as reported. Alternatively, if the quotes were hard to come by and were
the fruit of reporting enterprise or dogged questioning, it would be theft to appropriate them without saluting the original source.

I would say too that if the comments are themselves news, the organization that is re-reporting the story in which they figure should
not only get the quotes itself, but also indicate where they first
appeared.

But in Prof. Merrill's case, the comments he quoted were innocuous
boilerplate from University of Missouri bureaucrats that appeared in the
student newspaper, the Maneater. The Maneater's journalism in this
instance was largely stenographic. The paper functioned as little more
than a PR conduit for university administrators.

In his column, Prof. Merrill brushed past the comments to fulminate about the University of Missouri's decision to create a full-blown department of women's and gender studies from what until now has been a program. He might reasonably assume that his readers in the university community already had heard the news and might well have seen the quotes. They were, in his view, in the public domain.

So I think in this case the ethical requirement to attribute is debatable. What is not debatable, in my opinion, is the ethical requirement on the part of the Missourian's management to show respect for a professor of genuine stature and bring proportionality to responding to an exceedingly minor instance where an optional courtesy was withheld. [Permalink]

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