Connecticut's Journal Register newspaper company has experienced its second round of plagiarism accusations in less then three months, reported Poynter. On Tuesday, Jan. 10, editor Matt DeRienzo revealed that a Jan. 5 front-page sports story in the Fairfield Minuteman plagiarized verbatim articles from two competing newspapers.
The story in question, "Warde Boys Win Prep Classic," was written by the Fairfield Minuteman's sports Editor Eric Montgomery, who "is no longer an employee," according to an editor's note in the newspaper.
This incident of plagiarism comes less than three months after reporter Walt Gogolya was fired from The Middletown Press, another Journal Reigster Co. newspaper, for copying an article published Oct. 26, according to an editor's note in The Middletown Press. A review of Gogolya's other articles has "uncovered similar issues," the edtor's note said.
At the time, Steve Buttry, director of community engagement & social media for the Journal Register Co., used his blog to remind journalists about their responsibility to "vouch for the facts in their stories," adding that deadline pressures are no excuse for fabricating and cheating. "Reporters who plagiarize and fabricate harm the credibility of honest reporters and of their whole paper and industry," he wrote.
