Thanks for ripping me off Editor and Publisher!
(Updated below)
For those who don’t know, Editor and Publisher is one of the leading trade publications that covers the newspaper industry. After I published my article titled “Is journalist burnout on the rise?†I forwarded the link to Editor and Publisher in case they wanted to write about it.
The result?
Today, a reporter there decided to pen an article about the study. Though some of the facts came directly from the study itself, many of the facts reported were lifted directly from my article — facts that came from my interview with the professor in question.
Was I given any credit for my reporting? None at all. It’s presented in such a way as if the reporter had gathered those facts herself. And this is a publication that is supposed to cover journalism ethics.
Gee thanks, Editor and Publisher. I’ll sure remember this the next time I think about giving you a news tip.
If you’d like to email Editor and Publisher to comment on its journalism practices, contact them at letters@editorandpublisher.com. The email address for the editor is gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com
UPDATE: It looks as if the publication updated its article to include this:
This is just the beginning of Reinardy’s studies about journalist burnout, he told bloggasm’s Simon Owens. Reinardy intends to conduct a series of studies about the trend, starting with in depth interviews of 100 journalists about their dissatisfaction with their jobs.
My fellow coworker Joel forwarded me an email from the editor saying that he would get on it right away. It was an honest mistake.
For the record, I’m a loyal reader of Editor and Publisher and regularly link to its articles.
Ugh.
Well it must be that 10PM deadline and the sources not calling back situation…
Did you tell the Darts & Laurels column at CJR?
Ugh indeed. Failing to attribute a source is not an “honest mistake,” it’s a significant journalistic error that deserves not only an update, but an acknowledgment. They should not have just slipped your name in as if it was always there from the time of posting, but added something like this:
“Editor’s note: When we originally published this story, we failed to attribute much of the information presented here to Simon Owens, who interviewed Reinhardy and blogged about it on Jan. 25.” (including a link to your original post). We regret the error.”
This is even more important since E&P’s site does not allow comments and so you can’t post the full info itself.
When things like this happen, be sure you save a copy of the page as it looks before the error, in case they try to slip in the kind of halfway correction E&P just did.
- Amy Gahran