MSP post stolen and Mormons stumping

profxm says:

So, I ran my original post and the TBO article past a journalism colleague at my university to get a sense of whether he thought there was an issue. He responded with a lengthy email, excerpts of which are posted below with his permission.

Journalist’s thoughts:

“After a quick read of both pieces, I wouldn’t consider it to be plagiarism. I’m no Trib or journalist apologist, but it seems to me that he did additional reporting, including contextualizing and correcting some of your reporting–if he saw yours. The question is,
“Where did he get the idea?”

Due to speed and readability, journalists have very different standards re citing sources (compared to academic researchers). This can become a problem. Also, there is virtually no standard for stealing/borrowing ideas for pieces. If profs stole paper ideas the way journos steal article ideas, those profs would now be selling cars. In the case of journalists, they should in good faith add enough to justify their article being a derivative work, also a copyright term. I think Wiatrowski did that. He could and should have linked to your piece or given you some props for uncovering such a fascinating story, assuming he did see it.

If I were a journalist in Georgia right now, I might be so impressed by this discovery that I’d do the exact same methodology in Georgia to see what the Mormons own there. We call it localization. I wouldn’t even think to cite you or him, unless it was to provide a comparison (“In Florida, Mormon’s own…). I wouldn’t hide that I had taken the idea, but I wouldn’t mention it in the story. I might even send you a thanks or an FYI email with the link to my story. I also might tip off colleagues elsewhere in the country to do the same. It’s more akin to taking course ideas from other universities or assignments from other professors, so common the practice is often considered more collegial and flattering than dishonest. It’s just a different convention.

IF he saw your piece first, my guess is that this guy couldn’t interview you or even cite an anonymous post. If your piece got a lot of attention, he might have been forwarded the link or seen a Tweet or FB post.

Journalists localize stories all the time. He might have gotten the idea from a similar piece elsewhere (as I said above). Maybe even something written on a different type of land-owning group. Sometimes think-tanks or trade groups even send out tip sheets to journalists. The association of religious reporters (there is one) might suggest looking into what land their local groups own. A group of real estate reporters might be encouraged to do the same. This reporter might have first gotten the list of FL’s biggest landowners and then looked down the list for a good story.

Journalists are almost obsessed with combing through databases and cross-referencing records. The digitization of records, the speed they can be accessed and the ease of computer-aided analysis make stories like these low-hanging fruit if you have the time and curiosity. Like any other researcher, it’s only a matter of creativity in looking through the various permutations. Just on a whim during a drought, a reporter might look into how much water the various #GOP campaign HQs use, or look to see if a campaign bus or candidate has collected a bunch of traffic tickets around the country. For every story you write, there are 5 things you look into that don’t pan out.

I’d assume the best and just ask the guy. It might be the start of a worthwhile conversation.”

And now we know… 🙂

profxm says:

He just replied and said that he did not use my post. Huh.