Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Lake Placid, like Diogenes, Searches for One Honest Editor

Last week, it was three paragraphs.* Today, it begins with one sentence. And like a stray thread on a cheap sweater, Old Word Wolf pulled -- and the whole thing unraveled. The cheap sweater is George Duncan's column, Random Thoughts, bottom of page 7 of The Journal, which hit the streets and newsboxes in Lake Placid this morning.

From a blogger comes this account of a ruling by Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Judge Brown does what millions of taxpayers have always wanted to do - she zapped the IRS. She vividly starts the majority opinion in Cohen v. United States this way: “Comic-strip writer Bob Thaves famously quipped, ‘A fool and his money are soon parted. It takes creative tax laws for the rest.’ States Rogers: “In sum, the IRS unlawfully expropriated billions of dollars from taxpayers, conceded the illegitimacy of its actions, and developed a mandatory process as the sole avenue by which the agency would consider refunding its ill-gotten gains. (The Journal, Aug. 12, underlining in mine)

Since Duncan doesn’t name the blogger, OWW did a word search. The phrase “She vividly starts with the majority opinion in Cohen v. United States this way” ran in an Aug. 7 blog staffed by McClatchy News, Miami Herald owners. Duncan used the line, word for word, and then he used the blogger's quotes of the original document (I'm betting, but I can't really be sure. Maybe Duncan did go to the court decision -- it's on the Web -- and extracted exactly that quote. Somehow, though, I doubt it.)

"She vividly..." etc., is a one-liner, but it’s someone else’s one-liner. Duncan did manage to choke out “a blogger,” so he earns partial credit. But the newspaper editor hasn’t mastered using quotation marks around words he didn’t write, and he seems to have forgotten whatever he knew about using phrases like “said Michael Doyle, a reporter for McClatchy News Service’s Washington Bureau.”

The unraveling begins. The editor’s one-line transgression prompted OWW to take a closer look at the rest of his column. In his column's second Random Thought, Duncan reports remarks made by a congressman who opposes the national healthcare bill. Duncan offers a blanket attribution at the outset: “National Review online details this story about Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, R-New Orleans, who studied to be a Jesuit priest ...”

Google returns 456 places that used Cao's “I know that voting against the health care bill will probably be the death of my political career,” starting with The Examiner, wandering over to Politico, the Daily Mail, Catholic News Agency and a bunch of religious, right-to-life and right-wing nut sites. Not one hit is returned for National Review Online.

However, nearly every site that uses the congressman’s remarks tips a hat to the original source, the August 1 edition of The Times Picayune. A few sites even go so far as to name the hardworking reporter who cornered the hometown congressman and took the trouble to write down his words: Times Picayune Washington Bureau writer Jonathon Tilove.

Duncan wasn’t one of the hat tippers. Duncan appears to make no use of the miracle of the World Wide Web and his desktop browser to even try to credit the primary source. He apparently has relied on a report of a report – a source that he can’t remember and blithely tosses off to the NRO.

In fairness, perhaps National Review Online does carry word of the congressman's stand buried so deep that Google can't find it, so Old Word Wolf used NRO’s own search engine repeatedly, trying with the terms “Cao,” “being a Jesuit,” and “death of my political career.” Nothing found by NRO searching its own archive search feature.

OK, so Duncan didn’t source an interview that he didn’t conduct, and he didn’t accurately remember where he got the iinformation from. Could it get any worse? That’s a rhetorical question and the answer is yes.

Duncan’s an editor and he’s allowed to editorialize. He can make relevant (or even irrelevant) observations about the news that reflects his opinion. Here’s his opinionizing about congressman Cao’s willingness to commit political suicide:


Cao’s remarks call to mind the famous scene in A Man for All Seasons where Thomas More confronts his betrayer Richard Rich, who was made Attorney General for Wales for falsely testifying against him: “Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?”


This fine bit of editorializing ran word for word in a blog posted last week in The Weekly Standard. The association between the famous play and current event came to the mind of columnist John McCormack in his blog post titled "But for Wales."


The fruits of McCormack’s thoughts were harvested by George Duncan and secretly grafted onto Lake Placid’s cheerful little journal -- presumeably for personal aggradizement and ego gratification rather than a journalist's motivations to uncover the truth or inform readers.


George Duncan closes his paragraphs on Congressman Cao by noting that Cao is a man of morals and integrity. Duncan wraps up the whole column by remarking that Diogenes searched for one honest man.


Lake Placid readers are still searching for one honest editor.


* of plagiarism, that is.


And there's more unraveling below the fold:

OWW hadn't looked into The Journal's news editor when he was hired last year. If she had, she would have found out that the man who calls himself a writer and journalist, runs a personal blog that features "Science Fiction, Faith, and Golf." The logo's centerpiece is The Good Book.

Duncan's works of fiction -- and we're not refering here to his newspaper editorials -- are prominent stock among several Christian book clubs. And, like so many hypocrites before him, Duncan promotes himself as holier-than-the-liberals and a family-values kind of moralist.



Monday, August 10, 2009

"Mommy, are those doggies sleeping?"

This grotesque photo greeted Gondolier readers this weekend. The front page picture was not taken by a staff photographer, but submitted by a citizen photographer as news. The person sitting in the upper right corner is not identified.

The cutline reads: PHOTO COURTESY OF RICHARD SCHILLING Christopher Lee Siringer’s dogs lie dead in the yard of his home after being shot by a Venice Police Department officer who was trying to arrest him for domestic battery.

Journal Editor Plagiarizes Chamber of Commerce Brochure

To cover the week's top story for The Journal, the newsy little gazette that logs the first draft of history over in Lake Placid, editor George Duncan plagiarized the chamber of commerce's brochure. Duncan lifted almost a third of "his copy" directly from the center panel of the flyer, word for word, without attribution, quotation marks, or a single attempt to paraphrase. Clearly, it's a cut-and-paste world, even for the most senior of managing editors. **

Compare the texts below the fold:

From the newspaper:
Citrus - Second only to Polk County in the north, Highlands County produces more citrus than any other Florida county. Occupying more than 79,000 acre, producing many varieties of grapefruit, oranges and tangerines, the citrus industry has played both an economic and historical role in the development of the area.
Ornamental Foliage Plants - One of Central Florida’s fastest growing industries are the many foliage nurseries that provide seedlings and potted plants to local home and garden centers. Xeriscaping, the use of plantings that have low watering requirements, has earned its place in the landscaping industry and has proven to conserve water resources.
Wine and Grapes - both hobbyists and professionals are boosting the popularity of the wine industry in the area. Henscratch Farms will host a booth featuring their products for sale such as wine, jams and preserves, honey, dried fruits and an array of winery giftware.

From the chamber of commerce brochure:

Citrus - Second only to Polk County in the north, Highlands County produces more citrus than any other Florida county. Occupying more than 79,000 acres producing many varieties of grapefruit, oranges and tangerines, the citrus industry has played both an economic and historical role in the development of the area. Visit the Highlands County Citrus Grower's Association booth to learn more.
Ornamental Foliage Plants - One of Central Florida’s fastest growing industries are the many foliage nurseries that provide seedlings and potted plants to local home and garden centers. Xeriscaping, the use of plantings that have low watering requirements, has earned its place in the landscaping industry and has proven to conserve water resources. Visit the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscapers Association booth, sponsored by the Highland-Heartland Chapter to learn more and spurchas just the right plans for your yard.
Wine and Grapes - both hobbyists and professionals are boosting the popularity of the wine industry in the area. Henscratch Farms will host a booth featuring their products for sale such as wine, jams and preserves, honey, dried fruits and an array of winery giftware.


**Duncan has used his editorial space on occasion to rail against "the mainstream media," as if he isn't one. His exhibition here of the low regard in which he holds the fundamental practices of his profession removes all credibility for any moralizing he may undertake in the future. Plagiarists don't get to tell the rest of us where the moral center of the world is. It's clearly no where near George Duncan's word processor.

Copy Editor: A Pay Grade, not a Job Description














































Friday, August 7, 2009

School District PR Writer Plagiarizes Literacy Council News Release

Jessenia Cisneros may have cited her essay sources in high school under the watchful eye of a language arts teacher. But, apparently the lesson didn’t carry over to the world of work.

Cisneros practices in a field that some people consider a branch of journalism, a profession called “public relations.” In addition, she works for a school system where the following lessons are a specific part of the curriculum:

*The student will ethically use mass media and digital technology in assignments and presentations, citing sources according to standardized citation styles.
*The student will understand the importance of legal and ethical practices, including laws regarding libel, slander, copyright, and plagiarism and the use of mass media and digital sources, know the associated consequences, and comply with the law.
*The student will record information and ideas from primary and/or secondary sources accurately and coherently, noting the validity and reliability of these sources and attributing sources of information
.

Although Old Word Wolf did the underlining, the words come directly from the Florida Department of Education, the agency that issues the Sunshine State standards. The standards mean that no matter where one goes to school in Florida, employers (among others) can reasonably expect graduates to know these things.

Here's what Cisneros' employer can rely on: She does not attribute information or credit her source. She is capable of copying a news release written by others without using quotation marks around the word-for-word material. She is willing to publish extensive news-style quotes from sources she did not interview. And, finally, she will put her by-line on a prepared news release and send it to newspaper editors as if it were her own work.

Cisneros was trying to get good publicity for her bosses. Instead, she provided a model of hypocrisy and ethical bankruptcy -- not the things she learned in school.

The evidence is below the fold.


IBM grant will help improve literacy
By JESSENIA CISNEROS DESOTO COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT
ARCADIA — Adults and families throughout the state will soon have access to new technology from IBM to help adults and families improve their reading skills. The Florida Literacy Coalition Inc. received a grant from IBM for the company’s Reading Companion software which will be used by 34 Florida-based literacy programs, with a total in-kind value of $340,000.

One of these 34 programs is the “Learning Together” Family Literacy program held at the Family Service Center in Arcadia, under the aegis of The DeSoto County Education Foundation Inc.

Reading Companion uses speech-recognition technology that “listens” to new readers speak and gives individualized feedback, letting them practice their pronunciation as they acquire fundamental reading skills. This Web-based technology was developed by IBM research to improve English literacy skills.

“The support of IBM enables programs throughout the state to employ breakthrough technology in the classroom, alongside traditional curriculum to help students achieve greater English literacy and language skills,” said Greg Smith, Florida Literacy Coalition Executive Director. “We certainly appreciate IBM’s generous support and commitment to literacy.”

Programs that will be receiving this technology grant include community colleges, school districts and nonprofit literacy organizations in 23 Florida counties.

“Literacy is a key ingredient for students to be successful in school, perform in their jobs, and conduct their personal lives,” said Janell Ray, IBM corporate affairs manager. “IBM is proud to be part of Florida Literacy Coalition’s programs helping our adults and families gain the literacy skills needed to become more productive in their lives and in our society.”

Reading Companion software is effective because it is simple to use. Readers wear a headset microphone connected to a computer, and then select an e-book from the virtual library. As they read the book aloud, the software “listens” to their pronunciation and accuracy, and provides them with immediate feedback (such as, “That was great!”). If they have difficulty with the words, they are gently encouraged to try again or hear a correct pronunciation. In addition, participants are given a special ID and password that makes Reading Companion available to them online, so they can continue lessons wherever and whenever they can access the Internet.

Reading Companion also gives teachers statistical results on how the new reader is progressing. IBM also introduced the “Book Builder” feature, enabling anyone to become an author by creating an ebook that becomes part of the e-library for students to use around the world.

Reading Companion uses innovative speechrecognition technology developed by IBM researchers in partnership with teachers in IBM partner schools and notfor-profit organizations. It can be used in schools as well as to help adult learners to read. Currently, more than 700 schools and nonprofit organizations around the world are using Reading Companion in more than 25 countries.

“We are appreciative of the continued efforts of the Florida Literacy Coalition and their continued contribution to the adults and families in DeSoto County,” said Martha Jo Markey, principal of the Family Service Center. “One can never have too many options for reading experiences.”

The “Learning Together” Family Literacy program will begin again when school resumes. Call 863-993-1333 after August 17 for more information or visit the Web site at www.desoto schools.com/fsc.

__________________________

Florida Literacy Coalition, Inc. to Apply Innovative IBM technology to Improving Statewide Literacy Efforts
Posted on Thursday, August 06, 2009
Orlando, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/06/2009 -- Adults and families throughout the state will soon have access to new technology provided by IBM that can help adults and families improve their reading skills. The Florida Literacy Coalition, Inc. received a grant by IBM for the company’s Reading Companion software which will be used by thirty-four Florida-based literacy programs, with a total in-kind value of $340,000.

Reading Companion uses speech-recognition technology that “listens” to emerging readers speak and provides individualized feedback, enabling them to practice their pronunciation as they acquire fundamental reading skills. This Web-based technology was developed by IBM research and aims to improve English literacy skills.

“The support of IBM enables programs throughout the state to employ breakthrough technology in the classroom, alongside traditional curriculum to help students achieve greater English literacy and language skills,” said Greg Smith, Florida Literacy Coalition Executive Director. “We certainly appreciate IBM’s generous support and commitment to literacy.”

Programs benefiting from this technology grant comprise of community colleges, school districts, and non-profit literacy organizations (see attached list) located in twenty three counties throughout Florida. “Literacy is a key ingredient for students to be successful in school, perform in their jobs, and conduct their personal lives,” said Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs Manager, Janell Ray. “IBM is proud to be part of Florida Literacy Coalition’s, programs helping our adults and families gain the literacy skills needed to become more productive in their lives and in our society.”

The Reading Companion software is effective because it is simple to use. Readers wear a headset microphone connected to a computer, and then select an e-book from the virtual library. As they read the book aloud, the software “listens” to their pronunciation and accuracy, and provides them with immediate feedback (e.g. That was great!). If they have difficulty with the words, they are gently encouraged to try again or receive a correct reading. In addition, participants are given a special ID and password that makes Reading Companion available to them on the Web, enabling them to continue lessons wherever and whenever they can access a computer.

Reading Companion also provides teachers with statistical results on how the new reader is progressing. IBM also introduced the “Book Builder” feature, enabling anyone to become an author by creating an e-book that becomes part of the e-library for students to use around the world.

Reading Companion uses innovative speech-recognition technology developed by IBM researchers in partnership with teachers in IBM partner schools and not-for-profit organizations. It can be used in both primary schools as well as help adult learners to read. Currently, more than 700 schools and nonprofit organizations around the world are using Reading Companion in more than 27 countries.

Visit http://www.sbwire.com/redirect?url=http://www.floridaliteracy.org/2004/recipients.htm to see a list of the Reading Companion Grant Recipients.
About the Florida Literacy Coalition:
Established in 1985, The Florida Literacy Coalition (FLC) promotes, supports and advocates for the effective delivery of quality adult and family literacy services in the state of Florida.

As a statewide umbrella literacy organization and the host of Florida’s Adult and Family Literacy Resource Center, FLC provides a range of services to support more than 300 adult education, literacy and family literacy providers throughout Florida. Special emphasis is placed on assisting community based literacy organizations with their training and program development needs.
Contact:
Judy Bodnar
Florida Literacy Coalition, Inc.
Office (407) 246-7110 Ext 207
E-mail: bodnarj@floridaliteracy.org
Website: http://www.sbwire.com/redirect?url=http://www.floridaliteracy.org
Media Relations Contact
Kari Doro Florida Literacy Coalition
407-246-7110http://www.sbwire.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.floridaliteracy.orgEmail Contact



Wednesday, August 5, 2009

One of Our Own


Arcadia is a small town and many who live and work within its precincts may feel like family. But that's still not a good reason to write a headline in the first person. If this is the writer's headline, readers have to wonder why the editor endorsed it.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Sun Correspondent Plagiarizes Aviation Museum Web Page

It's just one sentence in Sun Correspondent Mel Jackson's story this morning about aviation pioneer Patricia Hange. But it's plagiarism, nonetheless. And the 50-bucks-a-pop scribe with no visible journalism skills probably just doesn't understand. Well, Mel, here's the lesson: When writers quote a Web site, the ethical ones acknowledge the source with punctuation (called quotation marks) and attribution ("said," or "according to," or similar). To do less is plagiarism. Here is is:


The museum is dedicated to the preservation of the history of women in aviation and space and the documentation of their continuing contributions today and in the future.

Why did this plagiarized sentence jump out at Old Word Wolf? The rest of the writing is riddled with so many syntactical problems, misplaced modifiers and failures to report that, by comparison, this vanilla smooth, compressed compound-complex sentence seems to have fallen like manna from writer heaven. After falling from the sky -- err, the museum's Web site -- it sat lifeless and nearly irrelevant in the middle of a paragraph about the local celebrity's achievements. It didn't fit or flow; it didn't read or report. It revealed nothing about Mel Jackson's story except that he couldn't write it himself.

Back in the old days, a real copy editor would have bounced Mel's story in a minute. Instead, it has been published, forever a testimonial to what journalism without editors looks like.


At the top of this post, OWW accused Mel Jackson of sloppy writing and a poor grasp of American syntax. Here’s the evidence, commencing in the first sentence: "To fly as an eagle has been mankind’s dream for centuries."

Using the wrong preposition (fly AS an eagle) is a classic case of schoolmarm editing that changes the meaning of an old cliché. Casting the time as the present imperfect tense makes the sentence’s action silly.

Second sentence: The subject of the story and our heroine is “a glide port owner and operator.” General readers can’t be expected to know what a glide port is or what it means to operate one. And, the “sun Correspondent” never corresponds on this point. A “glide port,” more widely called “glider port,” is essentially an airport that caters to engineless aircraft. A good reporter would treat the word as colorful slang (the word is not in Merriam-Webster’s or Webster’s New World, both standard journalist’s references, or in any of several on-line aviation encyclopedias; OWW derived her understanding from perusing up-scale hotel brochures that offer aviation recreation.)

The aviatrix is also a sailplane builder, readers are told. Again, a brief reference to “glider” would be reader friendly.

In the third paragraph, the correspondent reports her friends include “Jerrie Mock, the first woman to fly solo around the world in 1964.” This sentence is a classic case of sexism in writing: A woman achieves a milestone and she’s called by a diminutive – and diminishing -- nickname. The woman’s name is Geraldine Fredritz Mock, and it would be an honor and a salute to provide that level of respect before moving on to a second, familiar reference.

The writer's grammar garbles history. He reports Mock was “the first woman to solo around the world in 1964.” The misplaced modifier forces the sentence to imply there was a first in 1963 or 1965, as well. The misplaced modifier reappears in the next sentence. Jean Hixson wasn’t the second woman to break the sound barrier in 1957; in 1957, she became the second woman to break the sound barrier. A writer who misses these basics in sentence clarity and syntactical coherence needs an editor, not a $50 paycheck.

The correspondent needs to develop the skills of inquiry. He reports “for her achievements in the sailplane industry, Hange was inducted into the National Soaring Hall of Fame...” It would be nice to know what those achievements are: so far she is described as knowing other women who pioneered in aviation, and flying to South America on missionary work. Readers know there’s more to it than that, but this reporter seems too shy to ask for these details. "Why" is the juciest of the journalist's five W's, but in Jackson's hands, it's all but ignored.

The reporter dutifully reports Hange has received a "Charles E. Taylor Maintenance Award," for 50 years in aviation. But Jackson shares not one word with readers about who, what, when, where, or why. (Taylor built the engine for the plane the Wright Brothers flew; readers are left in the dark about which of the five or six insitutitions that honor Taylor sponsors the award or when it was given to the local woman.)

Much of the story seems to be buried deep in the jump where eye-witnesses to Hange's achievements are all listed. One is even interviewed. What a grabber this story could have been with editing, revision, and restructuring.

'Rithmetic

When editors inform the citizenry that the school budget is the same as last year, that had better be true. That wasn't the case this morning. DeSoto Editor Susan Hoffman told readers the school board increased its millage request, "although holding the budget to the same level as last year."

Here are the numbers according to one set of documents released by the school district, which doesn't include food service and several earmarked federally funded programs:

Last year's school budget was: $42,493,179.
This year's school budget is: $39,118,632.
That doesn't add up to "the same," even to an English major.
That's a $3,375,547 budget reduction.
Why is a measely $3.4 million or so significant? Ask the teachers and administrators who are trying to pull our district out of a dismal performance rating: a classic case of being asked to do more with less.