Is there a better example of what's wrong with the media today than a former journalism professor getting fired for plagiarism?
I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry.
As reported by the Associated Press Monday (emphasis added):
A distinguished University of Missouri-Columbia journalism professor will no longer write a weekly newspaper column after admitting to plagiarizing material from a student reporter.
John Merrill, a professor emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, also wrote a Sunday column for the Columbia Missourian, a community newspaper affiliated with the school.
But a Nov. 4 column by Merrill about the university's women's and gender studies program used three quotes and other phrases taken directly from an Oct. 5 story in The Maneater, an independent student newspaper.
Missourian Executive Editor Tom Warhover disclosed the plagiarism in his own column Sunday. A review of Merrill's earlier work by Missourian editors found five more columns in which at least one quote had been taken from other publications without attribution, Warhover wrote.
[...]
Merrill is a former director of the Louisiana State University journalism school and has also taught at Northwestern State, Texas A&M, Maryland, Virginia, California State University, Long Beach, and the University of North Carolina.
He is a past winner of the Missouri Honor Medal for distinguished journalism service and a member of the Louisiana State and Iowa journalism halls of fame. Merrill has lectured and taught in more than 70 countries, according to his biography.
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Hillary Clinton can hire him
November 12, 2007 - 19:28 ET by Lame CherryHillary Clinton likes hiring criminals like Sandy Berger, so this prof was probably thinking cheating would be a great resume addition.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
Journalism laid
November 12, 2007 - 19:37 ET by bigtimerJournalism laid bare.
Says it all for the majority of the leftist journalists as far as I am concerned.
Maybe just maybe someday things will be corrected, but not in my lifetime when it comes to journalism and the college teachers/professors.
No big deal, just turn the page and move on....
I have always wondered what
November 12, 2007 - 20:58 ET by EvilRoyI have always wondered what is the "magical" property that endows a journalist with their lofty status. In almost every profession there is a credentialing procedure to assure certain standards are met. Is there a test, licence or certificate that fledging journalists strive for to justify their existence? I know that Mike Wallace never got a degree in journalism, he was a voice over pitchman before he became a journalist. Peter Jennings went to college to study journalism but dropped out before he got a degree. Jane Pauly got her degree in political science, but she may have had a minor in journalism, I don't know. Nevertheless, once a person is acknowledged to be a "journalist" they are suddendly thrust into a postion of trust and infallibility, that often times is not warranted. Bloggers have as much a right to the exhalted title of journalist as Ann Curry or Keith Obermann (sic?) (actually they are more entitled that Keith) And don't get me started on "college professors".
Why does Ward come to mind
November 12, 2007 - 21:32 ET by kgAhhh, higher education is a wonderful thing.
laugh or cry.... I'm
November 12, 2007 - 21:57 ET by Conservative in the Artslaugh or cry....
I'm doing both. Laugh at the sad state of journalism, and cry for my Mizzou, my old stomping grounds.
writing about
November 12, 2007 - 22:07 ET by botgthe university's women's and gender studies program used three quotes from The Maneater
and i'm sure they were balanced views to boot
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” -Chief Justice John Roberts
Noel
November 12, 2007 - 22:35 ET by botgIndeed we all should cite our sources; like this quote which somehow reminded me of you:
God has so made the mind of man that a peculiar deliciousness resides in the fruits of personal industry.
Wilberforce
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” -Chief Justice John Roberts
B
November 12, 2007 - 23:08 ET by Noel SheppardB,
I like it. Thank you. ns
Wow
November 13, 2007 - 15:01 ET by greenfairieI'm also a Mizzou graduate. J-school no less. But I never ripped off anybody else's work ;).