Out Of Class #1: Why Attribution Is Important

One reason is because you wouldn't want to be labeled a plagiarist. From gawker.com (link here):

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Politico Gets Its Very Own Plagiarism Scandal

At long last, little local DC trade newspaper Politico has its very own Jayson Blair-type uproar! Short version: Politico reporter Kendra Marr was apparently a serial plagiarist.

In an admirably direct editor's note, Politico says that a complaint from a New York Times writer earlier this week prompted an internal investigation, followed by Marr's resignation yesterday.

This examination produced other examples of stories on transportation issues that bore troubling similarities to work earlier published by others. Some of these examples involved specific turns of phrase or passages that bore close resemblance to work published elsewhere. Others involved similarities in the way stories were organized to present their findings.

None of these examples represented invention of quotes, scenes, or other material

So, Marr was perhaps more of a serial summarizer-without-attribution than a Blair-level fabricator. Politico has posted links to seven of her stories which required corrections; Romenesko has posted information on Marr's background.

You messed up bad, Kendra. But it only takes five years to be forgiven for anything. We wish you luck in your next career.

[Photo via Politico]

... and here's a more straight-forward account from the Web site of the Poynter Institute, a well-regarded journalism think tank:

Politico reporter Kendra Marr resigns over plagiarism of at least 7 stories

Julie Moos, Oct. 13, 2011 11:46 pm

Reporter Kendra Marr resigned her position Thursday after a New York Times reporter alerted editors to similarities between his transportation policy story and Marr's story. Editors examined more of Marr's work and discovered at least seven instances in which "specific turns of phrase or passages ... bore close resemblance to work published elsewhere. Others involved similarities in the way stories were organized to present their findings. ... Material published in our pages borrowed from the work of others, without attribution, in ways which we cannot defend and will not tolerate."

In a prominent editor's note by John Harris and Jim VandeHei, Politico linked to the seven transportation-related stories written by Marr that were amended Thursday to include proper attribution. The stories also carry editor's notes that explain the changes. Based on the editor's notes appended to stories, material was used from these sources without proper credit:

Scripps Howard (twice)
The New York Times (four separate times)
Greenwire
NJ.com and The Associated Press (twice)
The Hill
The Journal of Commerce

Six of the stories were published between Sept. 19 and Oct. 10. One of the stories was published July 28.

Marr's LinkedIn profile says she joined Politico in August 2009 after two years as a staff writer at The Washington Post. Her Politico bio says the San Francisco native covered financial news for the Post, including the auto industry, and that her work also appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, The Orange County Register and The Miami Herald. Marr graduated from Northwestern in 2007. In November 2006, Marr was a student of David Protess at Northwestern.

During that time, as part of Medill's Innocence Project, Marr claimed to be a U.S. census worker in order to locate a witness in a murder case. Marr told the Chicago Tribune in May of this year that "she regrets using deception."

"I was a student in the class, and I wish I hadn't done it," Marr said. "It wasn't my idea, and as a professional journalist, I haven't misrepresented myself since, nor do I intend to ever again." Protess said the deception was the idea of Sergio Serritella, a private investigator then working as a teaching assistant with the Medill Innocence Project. "At the time, there was no law that prevented them from doing that," Protess said. "When I found out it was legal and legitimate, I gave it the green light."

Protess' 30-year career at Northwestern has ended, and the university has agreed to release emails he exchanged with student journalists working on the Innocence Project.

Missing word: Craig Silverman says VandeHei and Harris' note "is notable for the fact that is never uses the word plagiarism, even though it’s explicitly about a case of serial plagiarism."

Link to the Poynter article here.