Playing Defense   

To get a handle on how top editors are reacting to and dealing with the recent spate of cheaters in journalism, AJR e-mailed a survey to a number of them. Here is how some editors responded:

Has a reporter in your newsroom ever fabricated or plagiarized? If so, how did you find out about it?

• Steve Smith, editor, Spokane, Washington's Spokesman-Review: "We had an incident late last year. The plagiarism was identified by our city editor, who read our story in the paper and remembered a nearly identical report from another paper in the region published the previous day. Subsequent investigation showed that our report married lifted grafs from the other paper and entire sections of an Internet-posted press release."

• David Green, managing editor, Nashville's Tennessean: "The most recent..involved a freelance book reviewer. He lifted material from book jackets. A staffer noticed it when he was looking at a book jacket."

• Stu Wilk, associate editor, Dallas Morning News: "We had a situation in which an editor was unable to verify the existence of individuals quoted in a column. That led to further inquiry. It turned out that numerous names in numerous columns by this author were unable to be verified. The author insisted it was not plagiarism but rather reportorial sloppiness caused by illness."

If you answered no to the first question--no one in your newsroom has been found fabricating or plagiarizing--how confident are you that your newsroom is free of those things?

• Smith, Spokesman-Review: "Up to the point of this incident, I was absolutely confident the risks here were minimal... This was a clear wake-up call and reminder."

• Frank Denton, editor, Tampa Tribune: "Such behavior is so abhorrent, unthinkable in my mind, that I--probably naïvely--would put myself in a 'pretty confident' category."

• Joe Worley, executive editor, Oklahoma's Tulsa World: "Fearful."

• Douglas C. Clifton, editor, Cleveland's Plain Dealer: "I am fearful, not because I suspect that it is going on, but I recognize how difficult it is to detect."

• Carole Leigh Hutton, editor, Detroit Free Press: "I think anyone who says they're completely confident of that is dreaming or living in denial."

Do you have any newsroom systems in place to guard against fabrication or plagiarism? If so, what are they--and did the Jayson Blair or Jack Kelley or other publicized incidents inspire you to set them up?

• Greg Moore, editor, Denver Post: "We really don't have systems, but we have become adept at spot-checking stories, especially if we have received a complaint. But we are now looking into obtaining plagiarism software that will assist us in vetting stories. As far as fabrication goes, one thing we are thinking about is spot-checking stories against expense accounts from time to time. But there is no surefire way to guard against that sin except good aggressive questioning."

• Jack McElroy, editor, Tennessee's Knoxville News- Sentinel: "I think live fact-checking would be difficult for a daily paper, but I think after-the-fact accuracy checks are a good idea."

• Mike Connelly, executive editor, Sarasota Herald Tribune: "At the moment, we don't do spot checks. That may change. I suspect in the past that editors have sometimes downplayed complaints about reporters they trust. I can't imagine that happening any more."

• Clifton, Plain Dealer: "I send out approximately 10 accuracy letters a day to people quoted in stories. That device is a better vehicle to detect fabrication than it is plagiarism, but it does increase the chances that it might be noticed."

• Hutton, Detroit Free Press: "I asked our public editor to look into anti-plagiarism software after the Jack Kelley story, but it seems too cumbersome and inefficient. We certainly talk about this more in the newsroom than we did before the Blair story came out."

• Vickie Kilgore, executive editor, Olympia, Washington's Olympian: "We have an ethics policy that newsroom staff sign each year as a condition of employment... I send letters to at least five people each week who have been quoted in the paper. These letters include a questionnaire that asks about fairness, accuracy, balance, professionalism and a stamped, addressed envelope."

• Wilk, Dallas Morning News: "We spot-check names of people quoted in stories to make sure they are actual people."

Do you think that instituting fact-checking could curb these reporting transgressions?

• McElroy, Knoxville News-Sentinel: "We are considering launching accuracy checks later this year."

• Don Wycliff, public editor, Chicago Tribune: "To be frank, fact-checking is what I have always thought reporters do... It strikes me that, if you're to do something effective, it has to be substantively different from what you already do. That suggests to me something like post-publication verification by contacting sources named in stories and asking if they were properly represented."

• Thomas Mitchell, editor, Las Vegas Review-Journal: "Sometimes, but there is always a way to game a system."

• Ken Bunting, executive editor, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "I am not certain if a more elaborate system of fact-checking might catch more journalistic transgressions. If we were to institute a more elaborate fact-checking system, however, I would aim most of its resource at pre-publication fact-checking, not post-publication fact- checking. I recognize that is not always possible with breaking news. However, the objective should be to make publications better, and to catch errors or transgressions before they happen."

Would you consider a fact-checking system at your paper? If not, why?

• Tom Eblen, managing editor, Lexington Herald-Leader: "I would consider it if I had sufficient staff. However, if I were to gain back some of the staff I have lost in recent years, or even get more, I would add reporters rather than fact-checkers. I think the payoff for readers would be greater."

• Dennis Ryerson, editor, Indianapolis Star: "It could help, but again, a foolproof system would be virtually impossible to develop."

• Clifton, Plain Dealer: "Spot pre-publication fact-checking is possible and would certainly be worth talking about. The accuracy letters are an excellent post-publication practice."

• Paul Anger, editor, Des Moines Register: "Fact-checking would help. The question is whether fact-checking is an appropriate response to the amount of risk and whether it outweighs some of the negatives--the practicality of doing it at a daily newspaper, the doors that open to a source diving into a story before it is published. A rogue employee will be able to get around almost any system."

Do you think that reporters in your newsroom might feel pressure to come up with "wow" stories in order to be considered a star? If not, do you have any newsroom "stars" that don't come up with "wow" copy?

• Eblen, Lexington Herald-Leader: "I think that's always a danger. An editor must communicate two messages: I want 'wow' stories, but only if they are accurate, truthful and ethical. You can't have one without the other."

• Moore, Denver Post: "I think reporters feel pressure to be successful. That does not mean necessarily getting 'wow' stories. But I am sure they feel pressure to be on page one and to do stories that their colleagues marvel at from time to time. Our stars tend to be people who get exclusives, get their stories right and are great at source development. If they are working their beats so they can do those things, the wow stories seem to come."

• Kilgore, Olympian: "There's not enough 'wow' copy."

Do you think that the recent spate of fabrication and plagiarism incidents indicates a growing industry problem, or is it just that we're hearing more about them now thanks to the Internet?

• Reed Eckhardt, managing editor, Cheyenne, Wyoming's Eagle-Tribune: "I think the problem always has been there. We just are catching it more and hearing about it more. We also, as an industry, are more concerned about our credibility and are willing to wear our mistakes on our sleeves."

• Smith, Spokesman-Review: "I think it's a growing problem with numerous factors to blame. Staffs are smaller. Pressure never more intense. And basic ethics training simply is not happening at the university level and in most newsrooms. J-School deans report that more and more students, including graduate students, don't understand that lifting material from the Internet is plagiarism. Students are being taught research techniques in K-12 that confuse the line between research and plagiarizing. The instructional burden has fallen to the newsrooms and we need to do a better job in response."

• Tom Brooker, editor, Wisconsin's Green Bay News-Chronicle: "I think there are actually fewer instances, but our ethical standards are much higher, our mistakes much more publicized, the punishment meted out much more severe and, thus, also much more publicized."

Do you think editors, in general, are skeptical enough?

• Denton, Tampa Tribune: "Apparently not all."

• Smith, Spokesman-Review: "Yes. Skeptical to the point of harmful cynicism. But relentless skepticism is impossible and unhealthy... Still, we have to develop generations of front-line leaders who'd rather be aggressive editors who ask tough questions than well-liked editors who blindly support their reporters."

• Karen Hunter, reader representative, Hartford Courant: "I think the Courant's editors trust that their reporters are ethical and hard-working until something makes them think otherwise."

• John Burr, assistant managing editor, Jacksonville's Florida Times-Union: "No. That's one of the dangers of downsized newsrooms--people tend to get in a production mode just to get the paper out, and have less time to step back and question stories and sources."

• Connelly, Sarasota Herald Tribune: "[O]ne of the great lessons of the past year is that even when an editor trusts a reporter, the editor must never stop saying, 'Prove it.'"

• Hutton, Detroit Free Press: "I think we all want to believe in our colleagues, and it's hard to imagine someone in your own newsroom violating such a fundamental rule. So maybe loyalty and familiarity get in the way of skepticism sometimes. But I wouldn't want to create an environment that cast a shadow over the entire newsroom and treated everyone with suspicion."