Behind the NYT biz desk plagiarism case

New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt writes Sunday about the recent plagiarism case uncovered on the paper’s business desk, which resulted in the resingation of business reporter Zachery Kouwe.

Hoyt writes, “Ingrassia, who did not know about either incident at the time, said, ‘I think everybody looks back and says, yeah, there were warning signs.’ He said he would instruct his staff to tell him about every complaint when proper credit was not given.

“Many at The Times with whom I spoke seem to regard Kouwe’s plagiarism as an isolated case involving a problematic reporter. But Ingrassia said he is initiating conversations to see if there are things that should be done differently in DealBook and the rest of his department. At a time when cut-and-paste technology enables plagiarism, when news and information on the Web are treated as commodities, these are conversations worth having throughout the Times building.

“As for DealBook itself, it may need added oversight. Sorkin, who founded it and turned it into a highly successful franchise, wears many hats: editor, reporter, columnist and book author. His fast-moving blog contains original reporting and aggregates news from other sources in a complex stew. Much of the copy gets read only once by an editor, usually Lynch or another news editor.”

Read more here.