All Children are Male

The Charlotte Sun's executive editor reports that he dropped by a local elementary school to read to the kids. Apparently all the children he met were boys. Here's the editor's summation:

If a child doesn't get interested in reading at an early age, it becomes more difficult as he get's older. ... the trick is finding something that will spark his interest. ... take him to the library ... let him pick out some books ... find magazines he may like ....

The saddest part about Chris Porter's clueless sexism and offensive stereotyping is no one on the copy desk dared to correct a senior editor. Male privilege, perhaps. No, the really saddest part is Porter himself couldn't be bothered to revise and polish. Simply couching the passage in the plural ("... if children aren't interested ... spark their interest ..." etc.) wouldn't leave out half the school's pupils.

Correspondent Gets it Wrong

A lot has gone wrong with the "science" and "medicine" that Liliane Parbot-Johnson gushes in today's "Feeling Fit" feature about North Port's Warm Mineral Springs.

Parbot-Johnson's reporting for the Charlotte Sun newspaper flies the usual red flags, but one of its larger alerts stems from the writer's careless use of superlatives, her naïve acceptance of what someone says, her failure to attribute, and her decision to not check claims. Parbot-Johnson's "stoopid science" begins with the headline that picks up her essay's flawed, main theme: swimming in mineral water cures what ails you. But there's more than a Lourdes mentality working here. She rewrites history without so much as a nod to a credible source.

During the 1970s', the mineral springs, she reports, became the site of archaeological research:

During that decade, archeological research done by the state of Florida resulted in making Florida the oldest area inhabited by human beings in the Western Hemisphere. Previously, the title had been held by Mexico, but at Warm Mineral Springs, human remains were recovered from an underwater shelf.

Ignoring the illogical last clause, we ran an Internet search, turning up several reports of the area's archaeology, centered at nearby Little Salt Spring. George Wisner writing for "Mammoth Trumpet" reports scientists believe a Stone Age hunter enjoyed a meal of turtle at this site about 12,000 years ago. Other artifacts at the spring include a 7,000-year old greenstone pendant, and a carved spear handle believed to be between 8,000 and 9,000 years old.

Impressive -- but hardly the oldest artifacts in the Western Hemisphere that Parbot-Johnson claims, all on her own without attribution. Here are just a couple of recent reports:

One of the oldest radiocarbon-dated sites in North America is along the Savannah River, Allendale County, S.C. Albert Goodyear, a University of South Carolina professor, says findings suggest this site, called Topper, "is the oldest radiocarbon dated site in North America. However, other early sites in Brazil and Chile, as well as a site in Oklahoma also suggest that human were in the Western Hemisphere as early as 30,000 years ago ..."

In 2009, University of Colorado anthropologist Douglas Bamforth, identified 83 artifacts that have been dated to "nearly 13,000 years ago" found by a Boulder, Colo., landscaping crew under a customer's front lawn.

It's hard to tell from her sloppy reporting, but OWW believes Parbot-Johnson has confused the country of Mexico with the state of New Mexico. The prevailing theory that the first humans arrived in the Americas about 12,000 years ago is based on a famous archaeological dig near Clovis, New Mexico.

Columnist Burns Newspaper's Credibility

Steve Sachkar, a newspaper general manager and sometime biz-column compiler, seems to think that embedding "... he said" into a wildly improbable -- and false -- claim is sufficient and responsible reporting. It's not.

Sachkar is promoting a man who cleans clothes dryer vents. He writes: "Roger Frechette Sr. .... states that dryer vent fires are the No. 1 cause of fire in the country." No, they aren't.

Sachkar's photo invites OWW's estimate of his age at somewhere near the mid-century point: old enough to know better. Working in a news environment, he surely has heard phrases such as "fact check" and "verify," or perhaps "biased, unreliable source." It seems almost willful for him to ignore such a fishy sounding claim from a man whose livlihood depends on frightening the bejezus out of people.

So, what are the leading causes of fire in the country? According to the Quincy, Mass.,-based National Fire Protection Association, in the five-year period ended in 2007, cooking fires accounted for 40 percent of home fires followed by heating equipment (18 percent), intentional fires (8 percent), electrical equipment (6 percent), and smoking (5 percent). The association lumps washers and dryers together to arrive at a figure of 4 percent -- sixth ranked, at best. Other fire-data collection sources provide similar information. None rank dryer-vent fires as a "leading cause," much less the No. 1 cause.

Sachkar's credibility has gone up in smoke. We suggest the general manager remove "reporting" from his list of things to do.

Almost the Same Isn't the Same

Vencie Gondolier's features page today is largely "correspondent" Francine Milford's piece describing a local marathon runner as a "retired New York policeman." In fact, there's no such thing as a New York policeman, retired or otherwise. Police are municipal employees. Milford apparently doesn't know that New York is a state, not a municipality.

Her subject is a retired Colonie, N.Y., policeman. Colonie is a municipality -- a town. Does it matter? Only to those who care about accuracy in journalism. Milford doesn't. Her editors didn't. Well, we do.

We also care about a well-written sentence, so it's always amusing -- in a painful kind of way -- to turn to Lake Placid's Journal Editor, George Duncan, for his unique syntax, spelling and punctuation. When Duncan writes about literacy, his typos, errors, and fundamental mistakes add an amusing layer of irony:

Literacy Week will continue until Jan. 28 and to celebrate students at the Lake Placid High School are being challenged to read one (or more) out of five books offered in this pro-reading week. ...

"October Sky” is the true story of a West Virginia boy who grew up to become NASA scientist and has been made into a movie. ...

In “Generation Dead,” high school students die but come back to life and become a unique branch of humanity, and is meant as a take of tolerance. ...

" ... Domino’s have been gracious enough to donate the pizzas ..."

" ... Teaching a work of literatrue ..."

" ... the revision of Mark Twain classic book "Huckleberry Finn."

George, "Huckleberry Finn" is not the book's correct title! Elsewhere in the story you refer to a football as "oval shaped." No, not so.)

The headline says that students will participate in literacy week. We hope the newspaper editors consider participating, as well.

Keyboards Have " Keys; Real Journalists Use Them

People who fail to use quotation marks around the words of others are plagiarists. Roger Button fails to put quotation marks around the words of others. Roger Button is a plagiarist.

Button, a business columnist for the Venice Gondolier, writes as if journalism's rules for quoting sources do not apply to him.

Plagiarism is just one of Button's problems. The front-page, copy-desk written headline says "Economist sees recovery in 2011." The story says 2012.

But the rest of the story isn't very accurate, either.

Accuracy: The document Button copies from says Florida's economy is measured at "three-quarters of a trillion dollars." Button rounds that up to $1 trillion -- a $250 million error.

Accuracy: The document Button copies from says 2011 housing starts "will waver between 44,000 and 50,000." Button changes that to "between 40,000 and 50,000."

Accuracy: The report author's title -- according to Button -- is "director of economic competitiveness." Button leaves out the keyword "Institute" and fails to correctly capitalize the organization's proper name.

Transparency: Button quotes the dean of the institution as if there had been an interview. The quote is a direct lift from the report's foreward.

Back to Button's plagiarism: : The highlights in the screen shot are the unattributed sentences and phrases Button culls from the original report and offers up to Gondolier's readers as his own work.

Real journalists know where the quote-mark key is on their keyboards.

Bad Ideas: SCAT Head and Highland Games

"SCAT head" in today's Venice Gondolier is a thoroughly bad hed. But as usual, the Lake Placid Journal walks away with the day's bad-idea prize. Journal editor George Duncan digs into his bottomless bag of inapt analogies to call Halloween as bad an idea as "camber tossing." Sorry George, no such thing. It's called caber tossing -- and it has nothing to do with tricks and treats.

Top Real Estate Agent Presents Copied Column as Her Own

Over in the Venice Gondolier, real estate agent Gae Stewart's photo and byline anchor her business page column. Neither the editors nor Stewart tells readers her article about a proprietary software product, Listingbook, is an ad. Instead, readers are invited to assume Stewart has written the article. She puts her name and face to words she presents as her own work.

Now deep into the muck of plagiarism, Stewart fails to acknowledge in her publicist-produced piece that she did not interview the people she quotes. She does not give sources for the claims she makes. She does not attribute the information, not even to the software firm that is the most likley source for her prefabricated words. She has become a willing shill on someone else's street corner.

This particular article has been making the rounds since August. The firm has been selling its product since 1999, according to 2007 promotional literature written by Andy Baron for a Fort Myers agency. It is fair for readers to suspect a deeply rooted conflict of interest: The more people buy the product, the better off Stewart will be. She has not disclosed if that benefit is because she owns stock, is a principal in the Listingbook firm, or if it helps her sell more houses. Journalism tells readers things like this. Advertisements don't.

Stewart is credited at the end of "her article" with being president of the Venice Area Board of Realtors. At the end of this blog post, she's credited with being Sun Coast Media Group's newest plagiarist.

No, George. Chapter 23

Lake Placid Journal Editor George Duncan: "Beatrice [became] the fictional guide through the classic book "Dante's Inferno." (LPJ July 28)

No, George. Virgil was Dante's fictional guide through the "Inferno," which is the first half of an epic poem called the "Divine Comedy."

Tell; Don't Ask

In Journalism 101 classes across the nation, usually in the weeks between early and mid-October, tyro newsers and budding editors learn this bit of reader-friendly advice: No Question Heds.

Here are some jottings from an old notebook of mine, circa ... nevermind.

-- Headlines don't ask questions; that's the reporter's job.

-- Questions, by definition, don't inform.

-- Questions are incapable of reporting an event or development succinctly and factually.

-- Questions encourage readers to turn the page; most readers will think they know the answer to "stoopid questions" and move on to more informative fare.

My late-life corollaries:

Question heads tell readers that the weekly Arcadian's editors do not know that reading stories is part of their job descriptions. Question heads tell readers that the editors find the challenge to assemble an inviting, succinct, clear-eyed, fair-minded report of the column's content is excessive, mispent effort.

Question heads tell readers that the weekly tab's editors prefer the easy way to assemble a simulacrum of a newspaper: word-process whatever vague question had prompted the writer, blow it up to 36 points, break and center on three lines. The only newspaper-like goal is filling that annoying white space over the story.

Back to the reading part of the job. Here's what the question asker missed by not freeing up about 60 seconds to read her own newspaper:

Sentence 2: The May 25 vote was controversial ...
Sentence 3: ... activitists came in numbers,* warning of the dangers ....
Sentence 10: ... commissioners did the right thing .... even though they were faced with opposition and negative public opinion.
Sentence 11: ... the controversy is not over ...
Sentence 12: ... [Future developments] will surely spark a heated debate and cause much controversy ...
Next to last sentence: ... environmental issues and other concerns will have to be debated and resolved ...

Dear Editor: In answer to your question, the phosphate controversy is real; the newspaper? Probably not.


*The rest of us came in shirts and jeans.

Tuning-Fork Therapy Inventor is Newest Sun Plagiarist

Congratulations to Francine Milford, “Sun Correspondent” who today helps continue Sun Media Group’s tradition of filling its pages with plagiarized material. The Reiki Master and inventor of Tuning Fork Therapy -- turned journalist -- has raised the bar for "stoopid" reporting: her plagiarism is combined with her naïve promotion of a dentist whose practices have put his license at risk and who is facing substantial fines and professional probation from the state's Board of Dentistry.

We’ll start with the plagiarism.


Milford’s 20-incher on page 11 of today’s local section, “Area dentist hopes to improve quality of life,” is a pastiche of dentist Joseph A. Gaeta Jr.’s own Web sites and chunks of material that appear in scores – hundreds, actually – of other practitioners’ vanity sites.

Using the pre-written material is plagiarism because Milford, a licensed massage therapist who offers Bamboo Chair Massage when she’s not doing journalism, copies and presents the words of others as her own – her byline alone with no attribution, no credit, no quotation marks, no acknowledgement.

Through a combination of state-of-the-art technology and treatment plans, Gaeta preserves healthy teeth and gums, alleviates oral discomfort and improves the appearance of smiles on a daily basis. He has applied his unique blend of artistic and technical skills to produce durable and aesthetic results in thousands of patients.

Search using any key phrase in the paragraph and Google coughs up 380 occurrences on the Web – only the names change to accommodate specific practices, which range from Los Angeles to New York and seem to appear in most if not all 50 states. With that number and range, the statement comes close to being an industry standard. Milford, however, claims she wrote it when she hands it in to her editors without quote marks, attribution, or a source other than her own name on the article.

Sun Correspondent-Reiki Master-Tuning Fork Therapist Milford presents this article as an interview she conducted with the dentist, ostensibly eliciting this personal anecdote from Gaeta:

Before I became a dentist, I had observed my grandparents in their twilight years and specifically the impact that failing teeth had on them. Their quality of life had been diminished and there was a constant complaint of discomfort. Failing dental health affected their self image; it limited their diet and the basic ability to chew.

Compare that with a Web site called Imagine Your Smile where a testimonial by John C. of St. Paul MN posted two years ago that goes like this:

I had observed my parents and grandparents in their twilight years and specifically the impact of failing teeth. In each case, the quality of life had been diminished. Failing dental health affected their self image; it limited their diet and the basic ability to chew. Also, there was a constant complaint of discomfort ...

Actually, it's unlikely Milford stole the testimonial from “Imagine Your Smile” because Gaeta himself had already plagiarized the material and posted it on a free, self-publishing vanity service called PRLog just this past March.

Milford’s plagiarism isn’t her only failure as a journalist. She didn’t take a peek at Florida Department of Health’s Web site and check Gaeta’s status with the state. If she had, she would have found six administrative complaints and four disciplinary actions -- and the threat of additional sanctions -- lodged against Joseph A. Gaeta Jr. D.D.S.

Gaeta's most recent discipline stems from a 2003 patient complaint described in the disciplinary section of the minutes of the Board of Dentistry’s July 31, 2009 meeting. In this case, Gaeta is accused of failing to meet “minimum standards in diagnosis and treatment” and failing “to keep written dental records” that would justify a specific course of treatment.

The Board of Dentistry’s hearing officer that day recommended a $20,000 fine and a 30-day license suspension, during which time Gaeta could not practice dentistry. The hearing officer also recommended five years professional probation, a two-year remedial education course, and continuing education credits every year for the rest of the life of his practice.

In its final decision, the disciplinary board moderated the recommendation to a reprimand, $5,000 fine and a 30-day license suspension. It ordered Gaeta to take and pass a laws-and-rules exam within one year of the board’s final order. It ordered him to complete a two-year, comprehensive dentistry course within 36 months and remain on probation until this is done. In addition, Gaeta must also complete continuing education credits annually for the next four years. And finally, he has to reimburse the board within three years for the $40,000 it is costing the state to investigate, prosecute, and oversee his case until it closes.

The most recent communication from the state to the public about this dentist occurred just four weeks ago. On April 26, the board posted notice that Gaeta failed to pay the $5,000 fine and now is seeking “one or more” of several actions that include permanent revocation or suspension of practice, restriction of practice, an administrative fine, reprimand, probation, or “other corrective actions,” such as remedial education.

Milford has an obligation to readers, editors and journalism’s professional standards to report these charges instead of simply promoting Gaeta’s practice expansion as the next best thing to Color Therapy. She has an obligation to ask if his sudden affailiation with Alan Devos' dental practice (Devos will be Gaeta's "associate," Milford writes) has anything to do with a state requirement for professional supervision.

** The link seems to not work. Here's a copy of the page at the DOH Website, which is availble by clicking on the dentist's information card at that site.

Arcadian Journalism: How to Say Nothing in 600 Words

Today’s editorial is small town journalism at its worst: important and powerful names are scrubbed from the record, facts are vague, unsourced, and undated. The issue is never clearly stated. The outcome is never explained. The various sides of the debate are not aired. No one is interviewed.

“Athletes learn wrong lesson from parents” allocates almost 600 words in six hefty paragraphs in paen to the virtues of sports for kids. The brave writer tells Arcadians that sports are an “important, positive influence” in child development. The brave writer goes out on a limb to opine that young athletes learn cooperation, playing by the rules, and acceptance of authority.

The brave writer broaches the notion that sports require “practice and determination.” She endorses good parents who “enroll” and then “transport” children to an activity that will make their offspring “better off.”

Whew! Are we there yet? Readers who have slogged more than halfway through the “editorial” (we are so very very grateful that the U.S. Consititution protects free speech so we can mull this amazing communication), wondering what any of this bland vanilla, clichéd, trite, homogenized, platitudinous verbiage has to do with the headline.

Oh, here it comes! Fifth graf:


“In recent times [that’s the “when” part of Arcadian journalism], it appears some parents and parent coaches have lost sight of what the real purpose and goal is for participating in sports. [So many purposes have been regurgitated that we lost track of the “real” one.]. There is a report of three parent coaches of a winning team [named?] trying to change league [which league?] rules to allow them to coach their league all-star team, instead of allowing the other head coaches in the league to participate. [Who made this report? Which league is under discussion here? Where and when did the attempt to change league rules occur? What's with "allow?" Isn't a rule a requirement?]

When the coaches [which “the coaches”?] were unsuccessful in changing the rules [rule or rules?] , they walked off of the field, [which field?] in full view of the other children, [the coaches are “other children?”] with the head coach taking his own child with him. [And that head coach is named?] In other words, if the coach couldn’t have his way, then he wasn’t going to participate at all or even allow his child to participate. Are these the guiding principals [principles] we are trying to instill in our children through sports? Certainly not. [Is this the standard of journalism we are want to instill in our editorial writers? Certainly not.]

Shame on those parents and coaches who display conduct they would never condone from their own children or players.[Shame on editorial writers who fail to adhere to the basics of journalism, like explaining who, what, when, where and why.] This type of behavior [journalism] is unacceptable and should not be tolerated by ether [either] those parents who participate for the right reasons or the league that organizes these sporting opportunities for children. [How can we be warned about this terrible danger when readers don’t know any of the most basic facts.] We cannot let a few bad apples spoil the sports barrel for the rest of us. [Another charming cliché – but what the heck is a sports barrel?]

Excuse me; I have to go find some fish to wrap.

Lovebug Plagiarism: Cline Tells All, Sources Nothing

It’s not clear who “Bobbie Cline” is, but she/he gets the top slot on the front page of The Journal today. Her big story: “If They’re Love Bugs, Why Do We Hate Them?”

Cline is apparently the original source of everything known about the lovebug (except how dictionaries spell it), because she provides not one word of attribution in the entire story. There is no mention in byline, end note or the story itself why any of what Cline writes should be credible, except that Cline says so.

And, speaking of “Bobbie Cline says so,” it’s important to note she doesn't, actually. Most of the article is a light rewrite of Internet sources ranging from University of Florida Extension Service to a Sanibel-Captiva blog post written by a Fort Myers newsman. But not rewritten enough. Like most crime scenes, there is sufficient trace evidence left behind to award Cline the next available slot on Old Word Wolf’s left rail.

Here’s a recap of what Bobbie Cline woke up one morning just knowing without anyone telling her:

There are 200 species of lovebug but “only two species fly around the United States.” That wording appears on a Web page written by Dennis Adams, Information Service Coordinator for the Beaufort (S.C.) County Library. Adams attributes his information to the University of Florida and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services “Featured Creatures” website, but the characterization, “fly around” is entirely his, or at least was his, until it appeared in Cline’s article.

Cline also woke up one morning knowing the common name comes “from the insect’s habit of mating while coupled in midair.” Cline changes the librarian’s “lovebugs’ habit” to “insect’s habit” in an otherwise identical sentence, but that’s what we mean when we talk about trace evidence left at the crime scene.

Cline also woke up one morning knowing “Love Bugs [sic] don’t bite, carry disease, damage crops or fly at night, but they are a real nuisance to motorists.” She was channeling the nice librarian, who put it this way: “Though lovebugs do not sting, bite, or carry disease, they do spatter thousands of auto windshields and clog countless radiators.”

The nice librarian, in his next sentence, notes that a Bradenton (Fla.) Herald reporter said “they are drawn to vehicle vibrations and fuel vapors exposed to sunlight ... and they prefer diesel fuel over regular gasoline.” Cline’s very next sentence is “Being attracted to hot engines, vibrations and diesel exhaust ...”

Cline also woke up one morning knowing lovebugs “have a black body, a thorax that is red or yellow, short antennae and clear wings,” wording identical Charles Runnells’s post titled “They’re BAAACK!” dated May 31, 2006 at a Sanibel Captiva Island Message Board.

Runnells, who writes for the Fort Myers News-Press, lists “Lovebug Facts” in an article that appeared in his newspaper the same day, including this somewhat illogical sequence of ideas: “The males have large compound eyes and the females are larger in size.” The illogic doesn’t faze Cline one bit; she uses newsman Runnell’s sentence word for word.

The nice newsman also writes in his next line that a lovebug’s lifespan is “just three to six weeks and consists of hatching as a larvae, pupating, and then emerging briefly as an adult.” Cline copies it word for word for her report, but never mentions Runnells’ contribution to her fact-finding mission.

The same Sanibel message board reports “they are attracted to anethole, an essential oil found in some plants,” but the proper source for this is Ron Cherry, the Everglades biologist who back in 1998 researched and published “Attraction of the lovebug to anethole,” in the scientific journal, Florida Entomologist. True, I don’t know how many ways one can say this, but it would be nice to credit your source and use quote marks around material you didn't write, even if your specific source doesn't bother with this. (The hidden danger of plagiarism is one might be plagiarising a plagiarist!)

Cline also woke up one morning knowing that “Adult love bugs are vegetarians.” There are a number of sources for this wording – strong evidence Cline probably didn’t write it. But we’re betting she may have been copying from her computer screen while reading a blog, Kudzu Monthly, where other key phrases Cline uses also appear: the idea that lovebugs “congregate ... at truckstops,” and that they “love diesel exhaust.” Even her opening graf, “hard to love bugs” seems like the very echo of Kudzu’s post title.

When Cline woke up one recent morning knowing that lovebug larvae live in swampy areas, she was clearly channeling a radio program narrated by Kevin Pierce with “The Florida Environment.” In spot fe00510, he says: “... they’re found along roadsides and swampy areas.” Cline writes “They are found along roadsides and swampy areas.” Pierce characterizes the environment as “places that have a lot of organic buildup.” Cline characterizes the environment as “any place with organic buildup.”

Cline just woke up one morning knowing that “formaldehyde and heptaldehyde are the two most attractive components of diesel exhaust,” wording that directly from an article by three researchers at the University of Florida IFAS Extension service called “Solutions for Your Life.” Solutions for Your Life.

There's really not much else to say except that the Lake Placid editors didn't even have to do this research in order to decide to spike this article. All they had to do was read it and notice that not one single "according to" lends the thinnest patina of respectiblity to this lie and cheat.

Let Readers Draw Their Own Unwarranted Conclusions

This morning's front page, 7-inch filler, lower right, tells Old Word Wolf that grapes are good for her heart.

That's what a second-person pronoun does. "You" means the reader. And in this case that would be moi heart. Well, as the names featured on the left rail know, OWW doesn't have a heart.

Equally important is another minor detail -- that quaint idea that a headline accurately reflects the story. The article says nothing about human or Old Wolf hearts. The words -- read 'em -- are devoted solely to rat hearts, and rat hearts in a Michigan laboratory, at that.

Copy editors page designers layout artists Headline slappers, heed: Your (yes, that would be you) job is to report what the story says. It's the reader's job to draw baseless conclusions.

Before we move on, note the helpful picture of this rare fruit.

While we're on the front page, check out what's framing the mast: a color photo of Sandra Bullock from head to boob, a red-letter, three-line teaser about her marito-parental status, a refer to page 10. This would be fine if you -- yes, that would be you, Sun Group -- were our very own local National Inquirer or Variety, or even People Magazine, from where this who-cares-leave-the-movie-star-alone item has been lifted. Silly silly us. We thought we were reading a southwest Florida regional newspaper.

Today's Op-Ed Headline

The One and The Only ...

Week after week, Charlotte Sun demonstrates its institutional scorn for good old fashioned copy editing. Obviously silly and erroneous stories fill space with nary a blush from the real people who go to work every day and style themselves as old fashioned newsers or reporters working a beat. Accuracy? How quaint!

Stories run with obvious errors, hot off the wire. Although the AP regularly runs corrections to its stories, nary a one ever appears in the Sun. From paginator to publisher, pre-written headlines are considered good to go: no time wasted reading the story and doing better; no effort wasted sorting Charlotte, N.C., from Port Charlotte. If it starts with Ch- and end with -otte, run it. But I digress.

Today's posts are a collection of copy-editing-free snippetsthat don't really need the attention of highly skilled and perceptive copy editors. Just about anyone who can read could have done the job.

The editorial's position statement is mssing a "not," giving every Sun reader a really good feeling about accuracy, attention to detail, and carefully crafted columns by skilled writers.

Just inches away, a correction on the letters page omits any reference to date, writer, headline, or an issue that might actually set the record straight. And what's with the "transcription error" excuse? If someone on staff is typing "Englewood" instead of "Manasota," then the problem goes a little deeper than just firing all those copy editors.

And finally, a local front correction elevates Joe Kernan to Indiana's one and only former governor. Journalism students who missed it in high school usually learn by the time they finish their second or third story for the Campus Bugle that there's a difference between "the" and "a."

When You Don't Say Where You Got It, We Call It Plagiarism

Today's Arcadian carries an editorial that appeared earlier this week in a Fort Worth, Texas, paper. Susan Hoffman, Arcadian managing editor, uses the editorial without attribution and appropriates not only the copy but the headline, as well.

Sure, next week Hoffman will run a little note acknowledging the borrowing (although the last time she tried this, even the correction was wrong -- see March 4, below). But the practice points to more than just unintentional plagiarism brought on by careless copy editing.

The practice of running out-of-state editorials (with or without 'fessing up to their origins) tells readers the editorial staff lacks the time -- and the will -- to express a local viewpoint on local issues. And when it's time to roll the presses, just about any space filler will do.

Devoting local Viewpoint space to a national story that didn't appear in the hyper-local weekly Arcadian tells readers that their news leadership is reluctant to comment on DeSoto County issues. In fact, dozens of important local stories -- the ones that are not flattering to the powers that be -- never make it to the paper. Filling space with out-of-town "viewpoints" tells readers that their watchdog is a lapdog.

Grammar Bits, the Sequel

Below is a post about an article written by a schools-beat reporter who can't get subjects and verbs to agree. On Sunday, we read the same error, same newspaper, different writer, twice in one column. This time it's the publisher Himself. He's writing about effective teachers.

Tongue firmly in cheek, Himself opines that pols get "much smarter" when they head off to Tallahassee, "...their knowledge and brain power dwarfs that of the local school board..."

Grammar bit: plural and compound subjects require a plural verb.

Later, in the same column, " ... teacher pay and tenure is largely a matter of advanced courses .. and years of service."

Grammar bit: plural and compound subjects require a plural verb.

On the other side of the coin, singular nouns pair up with singular pronouns, a grammar bit that this morning's editorial writer ignores: "... local government is busy launching their own projects."

And what's with the hyper possessive from the same editorial writer? The Venice city manger reports an "expansion of its Knights's Trail Business Park ..."


More Below ... Maybe Not


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Today's Grammar Bit

When a sentence's subject is two things, its verb is plural. A reporter who writes about middle-school literacy should learn this. After all, your newspaper doesn't employ copy editors anymore and it is the story's first sentence.

"Literacy and the joy of recreational reading was a focus at Port Charlotte Middle School ... " **Were

We'll Let You Know ...

Two pictures, one cutline: There was a three car pile-up, literally, on State Road 27 last Wednesday. However, due to computer problems and other difficulties, the Lake Placid Police Department has not yet issued an official report on the accident.

Now, Old Word Wolf has always believed that reporters were supposed to report. Here's a reporter with camera in hand on the scene -- and she/he can't figure out how to tell readers the most basic facts. For example, where on the 600-mile-long State Road 27 this happened, when last Wednesday (eight days ago) did this happen, and did rescue services show up at this unnamed intersection with a pedestrian crossing? Even with a trusty LPJ reporter with camera in hand -- and a publisher standing by ready to print the story -- readers can't be informed whether traffic was halted, if three drivers alone or passengers were involved -- not a single element that might consititute news rates one drop of ink.

All readers get is the pathetic, sad report that a reporter with camera in hand can't report what happened until the cops find a computer that works. OWW is dying to know what the part about "other difficulties" might be ...


OWW usually skips typos, common grammar trips and usage faults, but the editors at “Let’s Go,” the regional entertainment tab for Sun newspapers, have become so sloppy that they really ought to consider hiring an actual copy editor.

Kim Cool reports her visit to Morrocco, and Sharie Derrickson reports a local bistro owner “uses his refined pallet for wine to help accent each dish.” The same writer uses the power of the press to immortalize the observation that “We are from different countries; I am from Europe and he is from Brazil.” An alert, sensitive reporter would have paraphrased the information to avoid making a perfectly nice lady look really silly in print.

Yes, Copying Program Notes Counts as Plagiarism

“Correspondent” John Lawhorne reports a wonderful story in this week’s Arcadian about a family that hired musician Joel Raney to score an anthem in honor of their mother’s half century as a church musical director.

Lawhorne's page-10 opus lumbers along in his unmistakable style, freighted with passive voice (“... was taken up and promoted...,” “a fee was agreed on...,” “.... anthem was recorded...,” “anthem was presented...” “Raney was invited...” “March 21 was agreed ...” “the anthem will be heard...”) and regimented to insure almost every paragraph marches onstage to the uniform beat of article-noun, article-noun, article-noun (“The concert ...” , “The presentation ...” “The concert ...,” “The family...” “The project...,” “The score...,” “The family...,” “The idea...,” The anthem...” “The surprise,...” “The family...” “The anthem ...”).

And so when Lawhorne's flat-footed shuffle through the language suddenly bumps into a bright spot, the reader alerts: Whence cometh this refreshing, vigorous prose? And so suddenly, in the midst of the obligatory bio?

In Lawhorne’s case, the brightest prose seems to have come directly from a brochure that he copied -- not quite word for word, but almost -- almost enough to be charged with plagiarism.

Last August, a Pittsburgh, Pa., company called "Volkwein's Music" left a pretty green brochure lying around the Internet. Volkwein's brochure may not be the source of Lawhorne's plagiarism; more likely both Lawhorne and the nice folks at Volkwein had a bio sheet from Raney's publicist. Volkwein used the curriculum vitae to create a brochure; Lawhorne used it as his own by-lined work. One is publicity and promotion; the other is plagiarism.

Lawhorne: After receving his master of music degree in piano performance from The Julliard School in New York, Raney went on to work as a musical director and conductor for numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions.

Volkwein: .... went on to receive his master of music degree in piano performance from the Julliard School in New York. After graduation, he worked as a musical director and conductor for numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

Lawhorne: He owns Catfish Music, a music production company in Chicago that produces music for televsion and radio commercials for major companies.

Volkwein: ... Joel currently owns a music production company in Chicago, Catfish Music, where he and a team of composers create music for televison and radio commercials.

Lawhorne: Raney is an editor for Hope Publishing Company in Carol Stream, Illinois.

Volkwein: Joel is an editor at Hope Publishing Company in Carol Stream, Illinois.

Lawhorne: He serves as artist-in residence at the first Presbyterian Church in River Forest, Illinois where he plays regularly for the services and composes for the choirs and ensembles.

Volkwein: He currently serves as artist-in-residence at the First Presbyterian Church in River Forest, Illinois, where he plays regularly for the services and composes for the choirs and ensembles.

The final give-away that Lawhorne copied someone else's paragraphs into the middle of his story is those ideas appear in exactly the same order as his source materials.