Missing the Opportunity to say "That's What She Said!"
When a local paper fails to adhere to professional and ethical standards
Plagiarism is probably one of the dirtiest words in journalism. It goes directly against professional and ethical standards. So when The Purcell Register published its paper on Wednesday June 7 (electronic version is always one day later), it isn’t exactly clear how the paper overlooked something so glaringly obvious.
Most people know that plagiarism is intellectually lazy, taking something that someone else wrote and formulated, trying to pass it off as your own. When The Purcell Register wrote a piece for the their Opinion page under “Our Views,” signing the with the paper’s name, it implied that everything is organically from them. This article, “Superintendent gets a failing grade,” can be read electronically on their website. Specifically, it is found on page 4A. I’ve provided a screen shot of the article for convenience.
There are quotes from school superintendents. Where did they come from? One would naturally take that these superintendents either contacted The Purcell Register themselves, or that the paper went out and got the quotes. This is not the case.
The article also mentions a recent survey, sharing some of its findings. Again, there is no attribution to who conducted the survey. Where exactly is this information coming from?
When looking at the article as a whole, the very first line is the only “opinion” that the paper wrote: The total incompetence of Ryan Walters as State Superintendent of Public Instruction can best be summed up by school superintendents from around Oklahoma.
So exactly where did the paper get all of the insight?
Beth Wallis is an education reporter with StateImpact Oklahoma. What you, Reader, read from The Purcell Register can be found in its entirety from the article she wrote on March 25.
It is immediately evident that The Purcell Register plagiarized Wallis’ article, where you will find the complete quotes and paraphrases of the superintendents. When looking at what Macomb Superintendent Matt Riggs stated to StateImpact Oklahoma, you can see that The Purcell Register added words, subtracted words, and used punctuation to alter the original wording.
In Wallis’ article, Matt Riggs is paraphrased saying: In a high-poverty area like Macomb, there are real problems, but Riggs says he doesn’t see a point in bringing those issues to Walters.
There are no quotations attributed to Riggs in that sentence.
However, in The Purcell Register article, quotations are attributed: “We have real problems but I don’t see a point in bringing those issues to Walters,” Riggs said.
This plagiarism isn’t a simple copy and paste job, but a concerted effort to take and reshape someone else’s work. This example shows that The Purcell Register likely took the voice of Wallis, intermingled it with Riggs, creating a whole new quote, something that the original article never established.
Again, when you compare quotes between the two articles, you see that The Purcell Register, once again, changed Anadarko Superintendent Jerry McCormick’s statement from Wallis’ article.
Finally, looking at the last sentence of The Purcell Register article, you will see that this line is plagiarized, also: Walters’ continued silence lets superintendents know they
are on their own.
This line restates what a superintendent, who wanted to remain anonymous, stated for Wallis’ article.
This plagiarism was not simple oversight. It was purposeful.
I was made aware that this information was sent to Beth Wallis within a few days after The Purcell Register’s publication. Wanting to see if this issue was being addressed (since I didn’t see an apology or attribution in their June 21 paper), I reached out to Beth Wallis on June 22. She stated that her editor and manager were handling this issue. She provided their names and contact information for any updates.
On June 23, I reached out to both, with her manager, Dick Pryor, responding back to me. He stated two things in his email to me. First, he reached out to publisher and editor John D. Montgomery, who is an old friend. And second, Pryor said, “Montgomery…would take care of it with appropriate attribution to Beth Wallis and StateImpact Oklahoma.”
Afterwards, I reached out to John D. Montgomery, asking how The Purcell Register failed to properly attribute Wallis and/or StateImpact Oklahoma, along with a few other questions.
Montgomery stated that he spoke with Pryor yesterday. This gave me a little bit of a pause. Remember what I stated a moment ago: Wallis was made aware of this information almost two weeks ago. That means a conversation about this obvious plagiarism didn’t occur for almost two weeks after Wallis was made aware, along with her team, according to her. This happens to also be the very day that I contacted Wallis for follow up. Coincidence, or just a fringe benefit of being an old friend?
Montgomery also stated that he was not aware of StateImpact Oklahoma. He is now.
So how exactly did The Purcell Register get this wrong? Remember, the article was signed as “The Purcell Register,” so I can’t say exactly who wrote it. What I can say is that The Purcell Register is a family business, with four Montgomerys on staff. Did one of them write it, or was it another staff member? Was it a group effort? That information was not provided. What was provided is the reason this information was added in the opinion portion of the paper in the first place. And to ensure I get this right, let me quote Mr. John D. Montgomery: “And, yes I used it because I totally agree that guy is a complete loser.” That, Reader, was the implied opinion of the article.
It can be inferred that plagiarism was able to slip past the editor due to personal opinions about Ryan Walters.
Montgomery stated that attribution to Wallis and StateImpact Oklahoma will be in next week’s edition of The Purcell Register.
Project Red Man looks forward to reading it.
Semper Fidelis
Great article. Those digging, researching, chasing, interviewing and writing are constantly enduring the blatant theft of their work by lazy regurgitators. Publications are now too cheap to support real work and encourage the plagiarism by those that stay in their pajamas and rewrite the work of others.