One of the most important lessons that we learn in our Public Relations and Journalism classes is that you never, EVER plagiarize someone’s work. But, it seems that Katie Couric of CBS News did not get the memo about that. It was reported recently that one of Ms. Couric’s online blogs was plagiarizing an article that was written by the Wall Street Journal back in March 2007. The article that was printed in the WSJ was called “Of the Places You’ll Go, is the Library Still One of Them?” by Jeffrey Zaslow, and the blog appeared on CBS on April 4th. What Couric wrote in her article was practically word for word from the article that Mr. Zaslow wrote on.
CBS is in a serious PR Nightmare crisis right now. They say that they have fired “an unknown producer” and that they are going to work on making things better at CBS. What has happened to Ms. Couric? Nothing– and that is absolutely not acceptable. It is every journalist’s duty to do their own stories, and to be responsible for making sure that it is original content. This situation is not only going to hurt CBS, but for every person that is in the media field– which includes journalists, broadcasters, and public relations professionals. Ms. Couric and CBS has done so much damage to the reputation of both professions in this crisis situation.
What are my suggestions for CBS? No matter who you are or what position you have– plagiarism is never acceptable!!! I believe that Ms. Couric needs to step down immediately, because she is just as responsible for this piece as the producer– may be even more.
0 Comments