Quote of the week, aka more plagiarism in journalism
Blair Hornstine, who has been in the news recently for filing a law suit against her high school because she wants to be the only valedictorian in her graduating class, seems to have plagiarized while writing for the New Jersey Courier-Post. Hornstine addresses her errors in her column on Tuesday. She writes: “I was incorrect in also thinking that news articles didn’t require as strict citation scrutiny as most school assignments because there was no place for footnotes or end notes.”
Her thoughts make me wonder how many journalists don’t realize that they should attribute information in a news article, similar to attributions in an academic essay. In her column, she says that she doesn’t have a journalism background, she’s just a high school student who writes for the paper’s teen section, and, thus, seems to claim that she didn’t know any better and her actions should be excusable.
One of my coworkers and I talk about the issue of citing sources on occasion when the problem arrises in a journalism course he teaches. Saying where I found something and/or that an idea I’m presenting isn’t my own seems so basic to me and many of us. Maybe it really isn’t as basic as we think it is.
June 11th, 2003 at 4:01 pm
Valedictorian not to blame
Regarding the so-called fresh issue that cropped up about Blair Hornstine, the Moorestown High School valedictorian, your headline in the June 5 Chester County section (”Fresh issue is surrounding valedictorian in New Jersey”) was inaccurate. It should have read “Non-issue surrounding valedictorian in New Jersey.”
If I read the article correctly, the young lady wrote the stories and essays. She didn’t edit them. If there is a cry going throughout the land about facts and accountability, why didn’t Carl Lovern of the Courier-Post newspaper come out and say the paper was looking at the editorial staff for letting an unsubstantiated article reach publication - rather than seeming to blame a 17-year-old for such a mistake.
This whole situation is becoming increasingly childish and petty. Isn’t this about school performance, not who doesn’t like whom and who has some ax to grind?
Charlie Silvestri
Vineland, N.J.
Do not mistreat Hornstine
The harassment of Blair Hornstine in the wake of her lawsuit against the Moorestown High School is shameful.
No matter how people view her actions, they have no right to torment, threaten or otherwise mistreat her. By resorting to these tactics, her opponents have sunk to the level of schoolyard bullies and hate groups.
The harassment has not been limited to Hornstine herself. After writing a letter to The Inquirer in support of her, I have received several hostile e-mails from her opponents. Although I am certain that not all of her opponents endorse these tactics, their refusal to vigorously condemn them has discredited their position.
Michael P. Gallen
Philadelphia
June 12th, 2003 at 1:05 pm
Blair is just taking advantage of a system which is meant to help level the playing field of those with a disability, not use it as a personal platform to highlight ones achivements.
June 14th, 2003 at 2:51 pm
The only sympathy I have for this young woman is that she is probably completely controlled by her father, a sitting New Jersey Superior Court judge who should know better than use the law as a club. They played the system — the disability card — and the school let them, until other students equally deserving of the award, called foul.
As for the plagarism charge, there is little doubt, as the following Newsday article points out:
<http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj–valedictorian-exc0604jun04,0,7747250.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire>
The convoluted language of her explanation for the charge looks like it was written by her father or her lawyer:
“Upon reflection, I am now cognizant that proper citation allows scholars of the future to constantly re-evaluate and re-examine academic works.”
Harvard, you can have her.
July 11th, 2003 at 4:34 pm
Looks like the higher-ups at Harvard don’t take plaigerism very lightly. Blair Hornstine has had her acceptance revoked. Wonder how long it will take her to file suit against Harvard? One would think, if you were smart enough to get near-perfect SAT scores, and a 4.0 grade point and get accepted at Harvard, you would be smart enough to know how to properly cite your sources in an article you were having published in a newspaper.
By the way, her father is a Superior Court judge here in New Jersey. He’s handling the appeals from at least one of the kids involved in the murder plot in Oaklyn.