Plagiarism and blogging

Being from California, I am a big time Dodgers fan.  I read several blogs about the Dodgers along with the Los Angeles Times online on an almost daily basis.  A few weeks ago, one of the blogs I follow, firenedcollettinow.com, called out Scout.com for plagiarizing from their website.  Scout.com is a website that forces its subscribers to pay fees for their content.  Firenedcollettinow.com is a blog that provides free information to its readers.  Scout.com took word for word posts from FNCN and claimed it as its own.  The most troubling thing about the situation is the response from the scout.com writer, Tot Holmes.

FNCN does a great job looking at many aspects of the Dodgers, including their minor league system.  On August 31st, 2008, FNCN did a feature on up and coming Dodgers prospect Josh Bell.  The feature looks at many aspects of Bell’s ability including his fielding, hitting, and base running.  On February 9th, 2009, Tot Holmes did a similar feature for scout.com.  As you can see by the links, Holmes blatantly plagiarized almost the entire article.

After an email was sent from FNCN to scout.com writer Tot Holmes, Holmes had a very interesting response.  I find it very interesting for two reasons.  The first thing that I was impressed with is Holmes admitting fault.  Sometimes in life, that is half the battle.  The more troubling thing to me was the wording in the email.  Holmes thanked FNCN for “bringing it to his attention.”  Was Holmes really not aware that he stole the entire article?  It had to be brought to his attention?  I find this concept a bit ridiculous. I also find the fact that there was not retraction written also very troubling.

First off, I think the fact that scout.com feels the need to steal this content speaks volumes to how impressive of a job FNCN does with their content.  In my opinion, this is a sad display of journalism on the part of Tot Holmes.  Not only did he blatantly steal this content, but he also failed to take responsibility by not addressing it.  This is just one of many instances where bloggers are taken advantage of.  It is sad the journalists are not doing their part by covering things properly and plagiarizing material.  Because of the magnitude of the world wide web, it is difficult for bloggers to always catch journalists in the act.  Overall, I feel that it is unfortunate that bloggers have to deal with this however it is also reassuring that people are actually reading what you blog.