Toronto Star and two other papers lift decade-old item, run it as new

by Lee Hopkins on January 4, 2006 · 12 comments

in miscellaneous

HavenVia TechDirt via Todd Cochrane…

Looks like even ‘big name’ newspapers occasionally get caught with their pants down.

The Toronto Star (weekend reading matter of choice for Donna Papacosta, perhaps?) ran a 10-year old story ‘as new’ and didn’t even offer any credit to the original author or source. Ooops! Read their article here.

The Wisconsin State Journal, and the Rocky Mountain News (who’ve since taken the story down from their website) also ran the story, and the former even changed the article’s ending to make it sound like it was theirs.

Craig Silverman over on Regret the Error has a brilliant post on what went wrong, why and what the original author thinks of it all.

Salutory reading indeed!

And big media corps wonder why people don’t buy newspapers anymore…

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  • http://www.spaceabovethecouch.com/ jp

    With the all too recent and unbelievably bigoted comments about Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders by a sports writer for the Toronto Star, this complete lack of integrity does not come as any surprise. Unfortunately.

  • http://www.spaceabovethecouch.com jp

    With the all too recent and unbelievably bigoted comments about Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders by a sports writer for the Toronto Star, this complete lack of integrity does not come as any surprise. Unfortunately.

  • http://www.spaceabovethecouch.com/ jp

    http://blog.greglocke.com/blog/_archives/2005/12/15/1451499.html

    Apparently racial slurs are still legal as long as it is a geographic region being abused. The Toronto Star has a lot to answer for lately…

  • http://www.spaceabovethecouch.com jp

    http://blog.greglocke.com/blog/_archives/2005/12/15/1451499.html

    Apparently racial slurs are still legal as long as it is a geographic region being abused. The Toronto Star has a lot to answer for lately…

  • http://www.spaceabovethecouch.com/ jp

    I apologize. I had the Sun and the Star mixed up. Excuse me for my emotional reaction to Star article which perhaps best ignored. Canadian Journalism generally has a very strong reputation, and for good reason. I think pregnancy is making it a little hard to focus these days…

  • http://www.spaceabovethecouch.com jp

    I apologize. I had the Sun and the Star mixed up. Excuse me for my emotional reaction to Star article which perhaps best ignored. Canadian Journalism generally has a very strong reputation, and for good reason. I think pregnancy is making it a little hard to focus these days…

  • http://trafcom.typepad.com/blog donna

    Yikes. What a story. Thanks for sharing.
    To answer your question — I rarely see the Toronto Star. I do read the Globe and Mail six days a week.

  • http://trafcom.typepad.com/blog donna

    Yikes. What a story. Thanks for sharing.
    To answer your question — I rarely see the Toronto Star. I do read the Globe and Mail six days a week.

  • Lee

    As I live in a city where the only local paper is Rupert Murdoch owned, and in a country where the only national paper is, surprise surprise, Rupert Murdoch owned, I am not as aghast at such journalistic antics as one might otherwise think.

    And don’t worry, Jen, I have a brain like a fizzing cocktail drink and I don’t have a belly full of arms and legs to blame for it! You are definately forgiven in your current state.

  • Lee

    As I live in a city where the only local paper is Rupert Murdoch owned, and in a country where the only national paper is, surprise surprise, Rupert Murdoch owned, I am not as aghast at such journalistic antics as one might otherwise think.

    And don’t worry, Jen, I have a brain like a fizzing cocktail drink and I don’t have a belly full of arms and legs to blame for it! You are definately forgiven in your current state.

  • Lee

    Funny how you, Jen, mention the ‘Sun’… One of Rup Murdoch’s papers in England is called ‘The Sun’. Its the best-selling paper in the whole of Europe and it is decidedly low-brow. Page three topless girlies, scandle-mongering and salaciousness abound. But intriguingly, it pays its headline writers phenomenally well, as indeed it should; they can create in just a few words the most amazing pictures, witty bon mots and brilliant summaries of what the journos have crafted. Amazing reading… just ignore the text that follows the headline, that’s my advice. And page three, of course…

  • Lee

    Funny how you, Jen, mention the ‘Sun’… One of Rup Murdoch’s papers in England is called ‘The Sun’. Its the best-selling paper in the whole of Europe and it is decidedly low-brow. Page three topless girlies, scandle-mongering and salaciousness abound. But intriguingly, it pays its headline writers phenomenally well, as indeed it should; they can create in just a few words the most amazing pictures, witty bon mots and brilliant summaries of what the journos have crafted. Amazing reading… just ignore the text that follows the headline, that’s my advice. And page three, of course…

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