We’ve looked at Margaret Wente’s similar problems here and here.
Her column in today’s Globe not only borrows quotes, but in one case, appears to reproduce a whole paragraph - including another journalist’s introduction and connecting sentence.
A 2009 article by Helen Rumbelow in the Sunday Times quotes Michael Kramer of McGill. Rather than taking the trouble to contact him herself for some fresh observations (they are on the same side of the Atlantic, after all), Wente reproduces the two Kramer quotes along with Rumbelow’s introduction and linking observation, “the trouble is, he said, that the breastfeeding lobby is at war with the formula milk industry”.
Wente: One of the world’s most authoritative sources of breastfeeding research is Michael Kramer, professor of pediatrics at McGill University. “The public health breastfeeding promotion information is way out of date,” he says. The trouble is that the breastfeeding lobby is at war with the formula milk industry, and neither side is being very scientific. “When it becomes a crusade, people are not very rational.”
Rumbelow: …one of the world’s most authoritative sources of breastfeeding research: Michael Kramer, professor of paediatrics at McGill University, Montreal. “The public health breastfeeding promotion information is way out of date,” Kramer says. The trouble is, he said, that the breastfeeding lobby is at war with the formula milk industry, and “neither side is being very scientific ... when it becomes a crusade, people are not very rational.”
Another quote, and some language regarding Joan Wolf also appears to come from Rumbelow:
Wente: “The evidence to date suggests it probably doesn’t make much difference if you breastfeed,” says Joan Wolf, the author of a daring book called Is Breast Best? Ms. Wolf, an American academic, has examined the medical literature in detail.
Rumbelow: Joan Wolf is an American academic who… examines the medical studies in painstaking detail. “The evidence to date suggests it probably doesn’t make much difference if you breastfeed.”
And while Wente identifies the following quotes as something Wolf “told one group of moms”, the following exchange appears to come from an online Q & A with Wolf on the blog “Fearless Formula Feeders”.
Wente: “Breastfeeding is part of what I call total motherhood, the belief that mothers are both capable of and responsible for preventing any imaginable risk to their babies and children” she told one group of moms. “We are making mothers crazy by telling them that they have the power, if they are willing to put forth the effort and make sacrifices, to prevent all sorts of bad things from happening to their kids.”
Fearless Formula Feeder: Finally breastfeeding is part of what I call total motherhood, the belief that mothers are both capable of and responsible for preventing any imaginable risk to their babies and children…But we are making mothers crazy today by telling them that they have the power, if they are willing to put forth the effort and make sacrifices, to prevent all sorts of bad things from happening to their kids.
**
Do they not pay Wente enough to gather her own material? Does she have to borrow not only from established journalists, but bloggers? Perhaps a little Wentism is in order. Can I say Margaret Wente is a lazy sloth? After all, she described Elizabeth May as a “hyperactive chipmunk”, ‘media spotlight hog’, and “biggest loser”. She didn’t offer much to back up that bit of name-calling. I searched the article in vain for a little bit of work - three, two, or even one reason why May is like a hyperactive chipmunk. The high priced, laconic contrarian could have at least done something with nuts. So (for free) we’ll close with three facts about sloths:
1) The coarse hair of the sloth grows in a direction opposite to that of other mammals.
2) While nominally a mammal, a sloth's fluctuating body temperature makes it seem cold-blooded, like a snake or reptile.
3) The sloth is so lazy it remains hanging from its perch long after it’s dead and has stopped writing anything interesting or original.
This is really solid. Have you considered writing the G&M a complaint about this?
ReplyDeleteAlready done, as with past instances. We'll see what they say this time.
ReplyDeleteProbably blow you off. She's essential to their strategy for securing the smug, complacent, privileged boomer demographic.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'd expect, too, but it would be good to have their response on the record.
ReplyDeleteLook, there is a way to go about making this public. To begin, make up a succinct letter that details all the violations you have found and then send it to all the journalists that she has plaigirized. Then, send the same letter with those journalists contact information to other Canadian papers. Tell them that they have a story just waiting for them in which they can hold moral authority over their competitor (something everyone wants in the publishing business, especially with a name like Wente's). However, leave the cc on the e-mail in check so they know they are competing against other reporters to file the story.
ReplyDeleteIn essence, you cannot rely on Wente's friend at G&M to hold her to account. You will probably find much more success among her competitors.
Ummm...folks. Best you understand the term "plagiarism".
ReplyDeleteCopying quotes is not plagiarism.
stephen, I think you should read the evidence before dismissing it. And I understand this isn't the first.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you can’t read, Stephen. In the first example above, Wente reproduces not only the two Kramer quotes, but Rumbelow’s introduction and linking observation - the whole paragraph. Of the approximately 64 words in that paragraph, only 22 of them are the Kramer quotes – the rest is material from Rumbelow.
ReplyDeleteWente: One of the world’s most authoritative sources of breastfeeding research is Michael Kramer, professor of pediatrics at McGill University. “The public health breastfeeding promotion information is way out of date,” he says. The trouble is that the breastfeeding lobby is at war with the formula milk industry, and neither side is being very scientific. “When it becomes a crusade, people are not very rational.”
Rumbelow: one of the world’s most authoritative sources of breastfeeding research: Michael Kramer, professor of paediatrics at McGill University, Montreal. “The public health breastfeeding promotion information is way out of date,” Kramer says. The trouble is, he said, that the breastfeeding lobby is at war with the formula milk industry, and “neither side is being very scientific ... when it becomes a crusade, people are not very rational.”
In addition, Janice Neil’s article about Wente and the Dowd cell phone column spells out the problems with using other journalist’s quotes:
“Wente also leaves readers with the impression that she interviewed U.S. psychologist David Strayer. If she did, she doesn’t say so. The Strayer material also appears in a Times article earlier in the year.
Most journalists know that failure to mention the time and place of an interview can be code for the fact that the material isn’t being reported by the writer but has been taken from somewhere else. Many readers, however, don’t.
The Globe’s own style book addresses these points. Under the heading Plagiarism: “Excerpts from other people’s prose must be attributed so as to avoid even a suspicion of copying . . . Any extensive unacknowledged use of another’s words, structure or ideas may constitute plagiarism" (page 470 – ninth edition).
In the past, Wente herself has taken a hard line on plagiarism, including in a column that ran Jan.15, 2008: ‘Sadly, high expectations are deeply out of fashion in Ontario. Students are no longer penalized for such lapses as plagiarism or skipping tests.’”
Steven
ReplyDeleteI didn't see any attribution of the quotes, that makes it plagiarism.
It's not hard.
updated here:
ReplyDeletehttp://mediaculpapost.blogspot.com/2011/05/margaret-wente-plagiarism-and.html
there is no course that's what makes caricature, unique for mercy and make adorable Obat Aborsi
ReplyDelete