I took the advice and asked my EE about what if any policy we have and presented her with the evidence and print outs. She said to keep an eye out and see if it’s an isolated incident made because the person didn’t know better (which happens I suppose — she gave an example of a co-worker in Kansas who honestly didn’t know better until she was told). She said she might e-mail the guy’s editor to note that one of her reporters noticed a story with an identical lead.

I also asked one of our other editors who, a few days later, it dawned on me used to work as ME of the paper in question. Her immediate response? “It doesn’t surprise me.” And that, “He did it because he didn’t think he’d get caught.” Sigh.

My direct editor meanwhile has taken it in stride and humor, as he does most things, and helped me to do so. He joked that my productivity recently has been low: He hasn’t seen any of my stories in the HJ. lol. Well, it was a little funny.

Another reporter, when I spoke up, said he had noted a similar thing in a different paper in our region for one of his stories. He didn’t really do anything about it but chalked it up to bad journalism, which is kind of where I’m leaving this.

So all this leads to a whole lot of nothing. No guns blazing. No apologies demanded — or received. That story remains posted as it originally appeared under another reporter’s byline. And I have moved on, as I indicated before, to doing my best at my job and letting my work speak for itself — I guess even if it’s through someone else’s mouthpiece.

As a final note, I do think I would feel a lot differently and more outraged — though my outrage has diffused in the past week — if this had been an enterprise package or something I spent more than about half an hour reporting and writing. As it stands, kind of like when I see the TV or radio people reading near word-for-word a story I reported, I just chalk it up to a small market and thank God I work at a more professional paper than that.

I’ll just keep in mind what my editor often tells us when TV has the same story we’re also writing or reporting, “You can do better than that.”

It’s true that you could e-mail everyone personally, but that’s probably not the best option.

But, if there is a written policy at your paper–follow it. That’s why it’s there. That’s how I’d tell my students to handle it.

I love Mindy’s tenacity, as plagiarism is a problem, but it’s not your *personal* problem.

And Mindy, I agree he looks guilty, but aren’t we supposed to be in the practice of not assuming thing?

READER NOTE: I deleted the name from the text of this reply. It is indeed in the screen grab, if you’re curious, but Google won’t index the name off a screen grab. That was the distinction I was trying to make. I’m not protecting his identity, but I’m not trying to ruin his future professional life with my blog entry either. — Meranda

If you can’t do your own damn reporting and write your own text, then you do not deserve a job in journalism. There are plenty of people looking for work who know how to do the right thing. Give one of them this guy’s job.

I’ll talk to my editor again today and see what he says. Part of me thinks, let it go. But that’s how things like this perpetuate. Plus, then the guy will never realize his error if he is “green.” But even if he is, I’m inclined to think he should know better. I first learned about plagiarism writing reports in like 4th grade.