Society of Professional Journalists:Code of Ethics Are Not Being Adhered At His Bridgeport Newspaper.
The content in question came from a from a Jim Himes fundraising email that was written by Mark Henson, just hours after his political email for Connecticut's fourth congressional district congressman it appeared word for word in a CT Post Blog written by Jonathan Kantrowiz..
It appears that Jonathan Kantorwiz thought is was a clever little scoop, even though the words and thoughts were not his own.
A Jim Himes' Campaign volunteer, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that campaign manager Mark Henson was flattered that Jonathan Kantrowiz trusted the accuracy of his thoughts and words so implicitly by cutting and pasting the entire body of the fundraising email (without linking to us or stating that those words came from any outside source).
The volunteer also stated there were a lot of high fives among Jim Himes' campaign staffers, because Ct Post Political Writer Jonathan Kantrowitz admired the email subject line headline enough to make it a Ct Blog Post Headline.
Although some joked that they were amazed that Jonathan Kantrowiz had not managed to misspell Dan Debicella's name.
But when Connecticut Post writers copied-and-pasted from the body of others work there is only a small chance that their will be misspelled words.
Yet the Himes volunteer said that while most of the campaign were flattered by the Hearst Newspaper's plagiarism, one of Himes's staffers was furious.
You see, that campaign staffer spent three collective hours chatting on the phone getting the background information for the fundraising Jim Himes fundraising email.
This Jim Himes campaign staffer flesh out all of this personally and then put the put pen to paper.
This Jim Himes campaign staffer was the the one who researched online for several more hours.
This Jim Himes campaign staffer was also the one who brainstormed that headline that Connecticut Post political writer Jonathan Kantrowiz liked so much.
This Jim Himes campaign staffer say it took me some time before just the right wording was put toghether.
Later finally, Jim Himes' campaign manager Mark Henson is the one who then edited and fine-tuned the fundraising email before it was sent to Connecticut Post Political Writer Jonathan Kantrowitz and others..
But Jonathan Kantrowiz didn’t credit Jim Himes' campaign staffer, and he didn’t credit campgain manager Henson.
And when Jonathan Kantrowitz's fraud was discovered, Connecticut Post Editor Tom Baden rushed to cover Hearst Newspaper's compositional counterfeiting by slapping a statement that said Jim Himes' campaign was the true author of Jonathan Kantrowitz's post..
Still, the damage was done. Most of the Connecticut posts readers had already visited that particular blog, and the window of opportunity for Jonathan Kantrowitz to tell the readers that the source of his writings was a one-side campaign email had came and went.
Connecticut Post readers have been shocker to learn that Jim Himes' campaign staffers are being used to act as Hearst newspaper's golden retrievers;
Why should the Connecticut Post's political writer's scurry to fetch information, when they just can pilfer from political campaign literature.
Connecticut Post political writer Jonathan Kantrowitz can just slap down thoughts from one side campaign emails just as if was his own.
Just as if Jonathan Kantrowiz had invested his precious time into doing all that footwork.
The internet exposes a wide variety of writers to literary theft: novelists, poets, screenwriters, song writers, academics, comedians, etc.
Many are trying to make a name for themselves.
At times, these acts of piracy are obvious, like in the Jim Himes / Hearst newspaper scandal
Editor Tom Baden sees sections of Hearst newspaper articles reprinted in personal blogs without quotes, for instance, or even worse the reprinting of whole passages the Connecticut Post news site without proper attribution.
But the Connecticut Post can't pretend that Jonathan Kantrowitz didn't know he was plagiarizing when he pass off Jim Himes' criticism as his own.
It is wrong for Hearst Newspapers to write a blog post using a congressman's fundraising email, but never referring or linking to its originator.
Connecticut Post political writer Jonathan Kantrowitz can argue that he and Hearst were just cutting corners.
But ethically, this was wrong and Hearst editor Tom Baden should put an end to it.
And if that isn’t persuasive enough, consider the legal implications.
Theoretically, a writer can sue a plagiarist for damages.
Practically, of course, it’s highly unlikely that congressman Jim Himes will ever sue over a stolen fundraising email, one only receives damages if one can prove measurable, economic harm. And how do you estimate the economic value of spam?
As we saw with Napster, the law may lag behind new technology like blogs,
But, it eventually catches up.
If the damage from the Connecticut Post's act of online plagiarism could be accurately assessed, lawsuits suddenly become a viable option.
Finally, Heast Newspaper President Steven Swartz And CT Post Editor are gambling with thier reputation every they allow writers to dabble in cerebral thievery.
No one trusts an impostor like Jonathan Kantrowiz, and all it takes is one act of deceit to undermine decades of brand-building at the Connecticut Post.
So beware.
Thanks to the Internet, it may be easy for a wanna be journalist like Jonathan Kantrowiz to find and copy content.
But also thanks to search engines, the true creator can—and will—find out what the Connecticut Post has done. A
And bloggers and other news organizations have no qualms about linking back to the plagiarism at the Connecticut Post.
After all, it is only fair to give credit where it’s due.
