Regret the Error

I initially didn’t post about this story because it struck me as a tale of well-meaning aggregation gone wrong, but it seems that the issue was bigger than that. The bottom line is that the Hartford Courant has apologized for repeatedly and knowingly plagiarizing the work of its competitors.

Here’s an excerpt from a statement by the paper’s publisher:

Throughout our history we have served the community by highlighting wrongdoing and violations of ethics when we find them. It is only right that we focus the same light on ourselves when we are wrong.

So, it’s incumbent upon me as publisher to tell you that we failed to meet our own standards and, as we would with anyone else, we are flagging it, calling it wrong and taking action.

In short, after an extensive internal review, we have determined that over the last several weeks The Courant plagiarized the work of some of our competitors. This was not our intent, but it is in fact what happened. We are taking corrective action to prevent it from happening again. We have also disciplined the individuals involved.

There’s not much detail there, so here’s a nut graf from Editor & Publisher:

Last week, Chris Powell, managing editor of The Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn., complained in a letter to Graziano that the Courant had been “misappropriating on a wholesale basis local stories published in the Journal Inquirer” since late July, according to a Journal Inquirer report. Jeffrey S. Levine, the Courant’s senior vice president and director of content, said the letter prompted the Courant’s review of its aggregation practices.

AP also has some good background. Finally, a blog maintained by former Courant staffers offers additional details, including an internal memo that describes some fairly outrageous behavior (emphasis mine):

It is and has always been our policy to offer proper attribution. Over the last few weeks, The Courant carried several news stories in which the original news source attributions were removed and credit was given to a Courant staffer.   This was plagiarism.  It happened on our watch. Disciplinary action for those involved, including ourselves, has been taken today.  We’ve put procedures in place to insure that these mistakes never happen again.

The site reports that “Six people at the Hartford Courant, including Content Manager Jeff Levine and Editor Naedine Hazell, have been disciplined by Tribune for their role in plagiarizing material from their competitors’ newspapers.”

Thanks to all who sent this in.

*Correction Sept. 15, 2009: The word plagiarism was misspelled as “plagiairsm” in this headline. Thanks to a commenter for spotting this typo. Update Sept. 16: As David pointed out in the comments, my corrected spelling of the word omitted the second “i.” Very sloppy. I apologize.

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