SQUITTY! SAY IT AIN'T SO!
Posted on 05/06/2005 7:01:15 AM PDT by Liz
Tom Squitieri, a 16-year veteran of USA Today, resigned from the newspaper yesterday after his editors said he lifted quotations from other newspapers without attribution.
A statement by USA Today cited an article by Mr. Squitieri, published on March 28, that "included quotes taken from The Indianapolis Star that were not attributed to the newspaper." The Star and USA Today are both owned by Gannett. The newspaper added: "Squitieri's actions violated USA Today's standards on sources and attribution."
In addition, the newspaper said Mr. Squitieri, 51, a Pentagon reporter and a former foreign correspondent, lifted quotations used in other articles submitted for publication, but those quotations were trimmed before the articles appeared.
Also yesterday, The Christian Science Monitor removed an article by one of its correspondents from its Web site, saying "the editors determined that the reporting did not meet Monitor standards." The April 18 article about hedge funds was written by Jonathan P. Decker. The Monitor's editor told BostonHerald.com that the article bore too many similarities to an article in the online financial journal TheStreet.com.
The two departures follow those of four reporters from four other newspapers in the last month, quickening the drumbeat of questions about media credibility as editors react swiftly to apparent problems in the face of intense scrutiny.
Mr. Squitieri's lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, said the reporter had checked the quotations with their sources, who told him they liked their quotations the way they had originally said them and he should use the same ones. "It's like a sound bite," Mr. Cammarata said. "When you say something the way you want to say it, you stick with it. But on all the articles, he spoke to the individuals or their designated representatives, sometimes more than once."
Still, Mr. Cammarata said, Mr. Squitieri acknowledged not following to the letter the paper's policy of attributing quotations to the newspapers where they originally appeared.
Mr. Cammarata said Mr. Squitieri "had been looking to leave USA Today, and was talking" to other newspapers before this episode. In addition, he said Mr. Squitieri had been an outspoken critic of the newspaper for turning a blind eye to problems with another reporter, Jack Kelley, for fabrications and plagiarism that led to Mr. Kelley's resignation more than a year ago.
"The outspoken person is always the lightning rod," Mr. Cammarata said. "The lightning rod gets the attention, unjustifiably so."
Kenneth Paulson, the editor of USA Today, said that when a copy editor was editing Mr. Squitieri's March article on armored Humvees, the editor searched an electronic database for material on the subject and came across a May 7, 2004, article in The Indianapolis Star with similar quotations and phrasings.
Mr. Paulson said the copy editor rewrote the article to eliminate the similarities and alerted the paper's standards editor.
"We immediately began to look into Tom's copy to see if there were other quotes," Mr. Paulson said. He also heard from the editor of The Star, who told him of another duplicated quotation used without attribution. "Given that, we stepped up our investigation and reviewed a lot of Tom's copy," Mr. Paulson said.
He said they found "several examples" in drafts of published articles where Mr. Squitieri had used quotations without attribution. Those quotations had gone undetected because they were edited out, for space reasons, but the paper had the original articles submitted by the reporter in its electronic archives.
Mr. Paulson also said Mr. Squitieri had turned in a feature story, which had not yet been published, which had an unattributed quotation from an Associated Press article. Mr. Paulson said Mr. Squitieri initially said the quotations were coincidence, but later said he had been careless. Mr. Paulson also said Mr. Squitieri had said he believed the quotations were in the public domain.
Mr. Paulson said Mr. Squitieri wrote a statement to his colleagues saying that even if the paper had decided to keep him, he would resign because he had let the paper down.
He considered walking through the newsroom with Mr. Paulson as the editor talked to the staff "as a way of demonstrating his regret," but decided it would have been too emotional for him, Mr. Paulson said.
Gene Foreman, who teaches journalism ethics at Pennsylvania State University, said he was "baffled" that journalists continued to violate policies at a time when the spotlight on the media was so bright.
"It really surprises me, because the gain is so minimal compared to the risk, and the penalty is severe," Mr. Foreman said. "It's a life sentence."
SQUITTY! SAY IT AIN'T SO!
Aaaah, the MSM proudly lying to further their agenda.
Reporters are really a lazy bunch. 90% of them work about 2 minutes on an article as that's about as long as it takes to copy and paste from the latest DNC e-mail.
I thought I was reading just yesterday about how reporters have such high ethical standards.
'Gene Foreman, who teaches journalism ethics at Pennsylvania State University, said he was "baffled" that journalists continued to violate policies at a time when the spotlight on the media was so bright.'
I guess Mr. Foreman doesn't understand the lengths to which a member of the MSM will go to smear the other side.
He will probably be considered a hero to that bunch. Wonder which crowd Mr. Foreman belongs to.
Just guessing that the 'violation of policies' was not in support of a conservative or a conservative issue. Just guessing.
The majority of journalists are America hating leftists and truly believe that the rules simply do not apply to themselves.
JMO - they all seem to be copying and echoing one another. Cable "news readers" are constantly saying something along the lines of "according to the New York Times".
Is a minor in Lazy automatically packaged with a major in Journalism these days? If we can't find news, we'll manufacture some.
Well, it's a relief to learn finally that USA Today does have standards.
</sarcasm>
- Mart Twain, "How I Edited an Agricultural Paper"
Err, that would be "Mark Twain" ...
MORE COFFEE!
Well, back to the Valley News Dispatch.
Your post is accurate.
But you neglected one thing.
The editorial boards of most newspapers do the same thing!
It's not like these reporters have any choice. They've probably never been able to produce original work. The advent of the internet and instant communications is just uncovering that fact.
He can move to Delaware and become a Rat Senator. The rats in Delaware love Biden, a known plagerist.
Or he can move to Boston and become a congressit or senator. The Boston Rats will vote for any criminal or maggot.
Sorry, but I couldn't help thinking of this guy when I read his name:
http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/Squitieri.html
MAINSTREAM MEDIA.
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