Full disclosure: The Editor In Chief of The Daily Campus is currently an intern at The Hartford Courant.
Newspapers are firing staff, cutting pages and lowering salaries. Those are all understandable moves considering no one buys newspapers anymore. However, some newspapers are stooping to new levels in this time of hardship.
Last week, the Journal Inquirer accused its archrival, the Hartford Courant, of plagiarism. According to the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), the mistake wasn't one of failed attribution - it was an issue of blatant replication.
The writers at the Courant rewrote the Inquirer's stories as their own, only occasionally attributing the source.
While The Associated Press is a news outlet available for journalists to use, the Inquirer is not, and to treat it as sucht is just reckless and lazy. Granted, the Courant cut much of its reporting staff, leaving fewer people to cover distant Connecticut towns. But that is the direction of journalism. A newspaper can't compensate for that by essentially stealing another newspaper's work.
The CJR states that, "But if in these turbulent times, news organizations go the gimmick route and lose faith in journalism itself - courageous reporting, great writing - they're not going to make it and they won't deserve to." Newspapers need credibility now more than ever and a blunder like this can easily ruin that.
The onus is also on the public though. When the public stops purchasing newspapers and paying for news content on the Internet, newspapers are forced to cut staff and resources due to the lack of support. It is a vicious cycle that won't be solved soon. Nonetheless, the Courant cannot use that as an excuse for blatant plagiarism. Times are tough in the journalism world, but newspapers have to prove that they can survive despite the turmoil.
The issue is comparable to a college student whose grades are slipping so he plagiarizes a term paper. It isn't an acceptable act even though the student is struggling. Difficult times should motivate people to rise above and prove themselves in any case, especially the Hartford Courant's.
The publisher of the Courant, Richard J. Graziano, apologized for the plagiarism and stated that that was not the intent. He stated that the newspaper has been in business for 245 years and the credibility of the paper is deeply important. However, a newspaper needs to earn its credibility in times like these. The Courant has done just the opposite and can expect readers to be angry - potentially angry enough to no longer have faith in the newspaper. Now more than ever, the Courant needs to build credibility once more and show that plagiarism is not tolerated and their reporters and writers can still do an adequate or above-adequate job in these difficult times.
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