PressEthic

In the past, if you made a mistake at a college newspaper or included material in your story that had appeared in the paper earlier, you would probably be reprimanded and asked not to do it again. Nowadays, the climate has changed. Just take a look at this link from the Daily Northwestern, the student newspaper of Northwestern University, one of the leading journalism schools in the country, in which the paper retracts a story from one of their writers:

Daily editors received an e-mail Monday evening from a former staffer that suggested an article in Monday's newspaper ("Traveling mechanic rides to rescue of cyclists in need") was strikingly similar to a Daily story printed March 3, 2004 ("Get your fix").

After comparing the two articles and investigating the reporting behind Monday's story, written by freshman Tania Chen, we have concluded that significant parts were plagiarized. For this reason, The Daily retracts the story.

Both articles profiled Curtis Evans, an Evanston resident who founded and operates the one-man cycle repair service We Fix Bikes. The first five paragraphs of each story were almost identical, and a total of five quotes were found to have been reused.

The story was Chen's first as a development writer at The Daily, and editors informed her Monday night that she no longer will be working for The Daily in any capacity

In an effort to prevent plagiarism in the future, the editors at the paper have decided to implement an honor code and increase their vigilance of plagiarized stories.

Beginning today, all Daily staffers will have to read and sign an honor pledge that defines plagiarism, describes its consequences and promises action should a situation arise. Our news desk, which already meticulously fact-checks each story, will increase its use of Internet search engines and the Daily's online archives to minimize the possibility of plagiarism in the future.

This is just another reminder of how careful we all have to be and how costly one mistake can be. There is no longer any leniency for even the smallest of errors or mishaps. Even for freshmen at a college paper working on their first story.