Maybe NBC was hoping to fly under the radar with this little “note to our readers,” but let’s just say it didn’t quite work out that way:
Plagiarism unearthed at NBC https://t.co/AZ3HIHSfDZ
— Erik Wasson (@elwasson) May 2, 2022
Plagiarism, you say? This seems like a pretty big deal. And NBC News readers and viewers alike deserve a comprehensive, thorough explanation.
Too bad this is all NBC News has decided to provide:
A review by NBC News has found 11 articles written by a reporter over the last year that did not meet our standards for original material. The articles contained passages from other news organizations that were used without attribution.
In all cases, the passages were not central to the stories, but instead contained supplemental or background material that did not represent original reporting.
An editor’s note has been placed on each of the articles, and the passages that were plagiarized have been removed.
Maintaining the trust of our readers and viewers is essential to NBC News, and our work must always meet the highest standards of our profession.
That’s all you’ve got to say, NBC News? Nothing more to add? You guys use words for a living, but the cat somehow got your tongue?
It is a little weird to announce this but not say which reporter or which stories it refers to? https://t.co/NVZjU2XVOT
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) May 2, 2022
No, it’s not a little weird. It’s a lot weird. It’s extremely weird.
It’s also extremely on-brand for NBC News.
Plagiarism scandal* at NBC News!
* = except we're not going to tell you who it was and what stories were plagiarized https://t.co/fmKssEyrkS
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 2, 2022
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So if you wanna know which stories were, um, adjusted in order to make them less plagiarism-y, it looks like you’ll have to just read every single NBC News article and look for the editor’s notes yourselves.
https://twitter.com/sidhubaba/status/1521183186964860929
But that takes all the fun and mystery out of it!
It also takes all the credibility out of NBC News (who knew they still had some to spare?).
"Maintaining the trust of our readers and viewer" by not identifying the reporter in question and thereby creating the optic that any NBC reporter might very well be a plagiarist.
A note to our readers https://t.co/KTINf0x8U9 via @nbcnews
— David Wiebe (@dwiebe99) May 2, 2022
Well, to be fair, given what we generally see from NBC News, it’s entirely possible that any and every NBC reporter could be a plagiarist.
"A review by NBC News has found 11 articles written by a reporter over the last year that did not meet our standards for original material. The articles contained passages from other news organizations that were used without attribution."
Bizarre not to say which reporter it is. https://t.co/3j4tyNXuJD
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 2, 2022
NBC News finds multiple cases of plagiarism, doesn't name the reporter responsible nor does it look like the person was terminated. pic.twitter.com/cUqq6mRgmY
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 2, 2022
Has anyone lost their job over this? Not just the Mystery Journalist, but every editor whose responsibility it was to make sure that this sort of thing didn’t happen. Eleven times.
"Maintaining the trust of our readers and viewers is essential" say NBC News in announcing a string of plagiarized stories without mentioning when it happened, which reporter did it, and which stories were affected. Saving those details for the book? https://t.co/pbWiI1Y6NR
— Greg (@waltisfrozen) May 2, 2022
If they’re saving all that for the book, let’s hope the author isn’t a plagiarist, too.
Media types, what's your take on this? Hard to correct stories effectively without revealing which ones needed correction.https://t.co/lpKrdmALyN
— Hope Hodge Seck (@HopeSeck) May 2, 2022
It’s probably pretty safe to say that leaving out the name of the journalist and not mentioning which articles were written by said journalist were not accidental oversights on NBC News’ part. We’re not media types, but we feel comfortable saying that this is seriously effed up.
Perhaps Elon Musk is not the problem With media accountability
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 2, 2022
The War on Journalism is coming from inside the house.
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