In April of 2009 I had just finished reading a story I had written for the Chico State newspaper, The Orion, and boy was I angry.
The story was about the latest women’s lacrosse match, which we had lost that week in a close contest to nationally ranked Stanford. I read it from the comfort of my living room couch and was proud to see another of my articles had made the front page of the sports section. It was an action-packed account that included an exciting color photograph, a graphic retelling of a horrific leg-snapping injury and glowing compliments about Chico’s team by the Stanford coach.
But looking at the paper again I was shocked to see my name was no where in the article.
How could they do this? I was looking forward to adding this to my resume that I would use to land a career job after graduating next year. Instead of crediting me for the many hours spent writing, interviewing and researching the piece, the article simply substituted the phrase, “Orion staff.”
This article, as was often the case, was difficult and time consuming to put together. It took lots of research regarding both teams plus three hours of carefully watching the game while taking meticulous notes. Ater the game I was still enthusiastic while conducting the required interviews of three players along with the coaches from both teams.
I was shocked and called my sports editor to ask why this happened. I was told that the article I had submitted was perfectly fine and accurate. The reason my name was deleted had only to do with a minor error I had made in the much shorter online version I had written. In it, one of the players had an unusual last name that contained three letter “e”s. I had substituted an “a” for the second “e”. At the time I submitted it I was told that my name would be deleted from that Web version, which I had expected. I then corrected it before handing in the final print version.
My indignation only grew when my editor told me that she had stricken my name from the much more widely-read print edition so that in the future I would not make errors in my online submissions.
On top of the unfairness of this ruling, I felt that printing a complete article by someone without giving them credit was a violation of plagiarism rules. But this is a standard practice at The Orion. I call it “the journalistic death penalty.”
This seemed to fly in the face of a rule given in every Chico State class I have taken that involves any writing. I have always been told on the first day of class that including even a single sentence, let alone a paragraph or especially an entire article that is taken from any source without giving credit is considered plagiarism and a breach of academic integrity, with disasterous consequences. Virtually every teacher also gives a written admonition about this similar to that found in Chico State journalism professor Susan Brockus’ syllabus from her journalism 325 class, https://www.csuchico.edu/~sbrockus/325/syllabus.html#HonorCode
“If you violate the policies of this class or the student conduct codes for this university, particularly those relating to academic integrity, you will face consequences ranging from an “F” on the offending assignment, an “F” in the course, an appointment with Student Judicial Affairs, and/or expulsion from the university.
Yes, it’s that important.”
Yet I was upset knowing that The Orion does this to its writers publicly on a regular basis. Unfortunately I had two more of my entire articles printed that semester without crediting me as the author. I complained professionally in writing and in person several times to the higher-ups, with little satisfaction. As a result, I refused to write for the Orion the following semester.
In the end I was relieved that the head Orion advisor, Dave Waddell basically agreed in principle with my opinion. He praised my writing and asked that I return the next spring, which I may.
fascinater
