In the week that the Reuters Institute for Journalism Studies published the 2022 edition of its digital media report and placed the United States in the last place among the countries with the least public trust in the press, the American newspaper USA Today had to announce the removal of 23 plagiarism reports. and the invention of resources.
The articles were penned by reporter Gabriela Miranda, who resigned as soon as the internal investigation was opened.
However, USA Today, owned by Gannett, one of the biggest news organizations in the USA, announced the event to the public in a press release on Thursday, after the New York Times published the news.
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Plagiarism came to light when I complained to the newspaper
Internal audit by USA Today was opened after a request for correction made in one of the journalist’s texts.
In the statement, it was stated that the broadcaster decided to examine other reports it produced and found irregularities that “do not meet the writing standards” of the newspaper.
“We try to be accurate and realistic in all of our content and we regret this.
We will continue to strengthen our news gathering and editing processes.”
USA Today isn’t the first major American newspaper to face bad practices from its members.
Facts like these fuel anti-press narratives that have grown stronger in the United States during the Donald Trump administration.
One of the most notorious cases happened to the New York Times, which is now revealing the rival’s story.
Former journalist Jayson Blair was fired by the newspaper for plagiarism and forgery in 36 of the 73 news stories he published in five months in 2003.
Another case in 2020 put the New York Times to shame.
The main source for the “Caliphate” podcast by award-winning journalist Rukmini Callimachi was an alleged ISIS militant in Syria who was later arrested by Canadian police for “terrorism hoax”, had never been to that country. Still, the newspaper kept the podcast on air.
Read more
New York Times Caliphate Podcast Debate
Two years later, reporter from NYT USA Today reveals the story of Gabriela Miranda.
According to the publication, the largest newspaper in Gannett’s holding of 250 cars received a call from an organization that said it had no affiliation with a source cited in an article and attributed as an employee.
That’s how the internal investigation at USA Today began, according to the NYT.
The newspaper said in a statement that the audit revealed that “some of the individuals identified are not part of the organizations they purport to belong to and appear to have been invented.” In other words: the journalist created sources as if they had been interviewed and linked them to real companies.
“The existence of other named individuals could not be independently verified. In addition, some stories contained quotations that had to be attributed to other sources.”
As a result, 23 articles produced by Miranda were removed from the site and other platforms such as social networks.
The texts were varied: they ranged from stories about TikTok’s challenges to abortion laws in Texas and even the Netflix series “Round 6.”
The original links have been preserved, but users who come to them only read a warning: “This article has been removed from our platforms because it did not meet our standards.”
USA TODAY removed 23 articles from its website and other platforms after auditing a reporter’s work. https://t.co/OtJHnkwwXI
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) 16 June 2022
Journalism site Pontyer looked at the web archive of some reports and found that some sources invented by the journalist included medical students, professional doctors, and witnesses to the bombing on the New York subway.
The newspaper pledged to “improve the process for anyone who wishes to file a complaint or request correction” and “ensure that stories have clear and adequately identifying information for those identified.”
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In other cases of plagiarism, journalists have already been suspended and fired.
Claims of plagiarism have made high-profile journalists nervous in the past. In 2011, the Washington Post suspended Pulitzer Prize-winning senior reporter Sari Horwitz for three months for “significant plagiarism” in two stories.
Information from the EFE agency at the time reported that in one of the articles, exactly ten paragraphs were copied from the Arizona Republic newspaper.
“Since there are very short deadlines to deliver my story, I did something I haven’t done in my entire career: I used the work of another tool as if it were my own. It was wrong. It was inexcusable,” Horwitz told reporters at the time.
In the case of Jayson Blair of the New York Times, not only the journalist at the time was fired, but both editors were fired. And an internal commission was created to strengthen newsroom controls and prevent the recurrence of similar cases.
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source: Noticias
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