BLAIR REDUX? – AT 5:34 P.M. ET:  The New York Times is acknowledging that one of its reporters copied material from another paper:

In a number of business articles in The Times over the past year, and in posts on the DealBook blog on NYTimes.com, a Times reporter appears to have improperly appropriated wording and passages published by other news organizations.

The reporter, Zachery Kouwe, reused language from The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and other sources without attribution or acknowledgment.

The Times was alerted to the problem by editors at The Wall Street Journal. They pointed out extensive similarities between a Journal article, first published on The Journal’s Web site around 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 5, and a DealBook post published two hours later, as well as a related article published in The Times on Feb. 6.

The Times promises appropriate action, but is clearly not ready to indicate what that action will be. 

Assuming the charges are true, this is a dismissal offense.  Readers will recall the Jayson Blair scandal at The Times, in which reporter Blair, in 2003, appropriated material from other journalists and falsified elements of news stories.  There had been repeated warnings about Blair's work, but he was kept on for an inordinate amount of time.  Some observers suggested that The Times was reluctant to dismiss a promising African-American journalist, but eventually the paper forced Blair out and ran a detailed account of his sins.

The paper is moving much more quickly this time.  There is no racial issue involved.   

Generally, news outlets act responsibly when confronted with plagiarism and fakery issues.  Book publishers have a decidedly mixed record.  The Nobel Prize guys, confronted with alleged fakery by literature prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, of Guatemala, did nothing. 

If you're a book author who fakes it, and you can tell a good personal story, you may wind up as a sympathetic guest on a TV talk show. 

February 15, 2010