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Posted on 05/05/2005 5:49:49 PM PDT by wjersey
A USA Today Pentagon correspondent, Tom Squitieri, resigned under pressure today after the paper learned he had lifted quotes from another newspaper for a front-page story and used several other quotes, without attribution, that were cut during the editing process.
In a March 28 piece on the Army falling behind in ordering armored Humvees for Iraq, Squitieri quoted Brian Hart of Bedford, Mass., whose son was killed in the war. The same quote appeared, word for word, in the Indianapolis Star in May 2004:
"My son called me the week before he was killed. He said they were getting shot at all the time. They were in unarmored Humvees and were out there exposed to the fire. He was concerned they were going to get hit. He was literally whispering this into the phone to me. He was right. That's how he died."
Squitieri also used a three-sentence quote from Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) -- about the Pentagon having "consistently underestimated" the need for more armored Humvees -- that had appeared in the same piece in the Star, which like USA Today is a Gannett paper.
"This is a clear violation of our sources and attribution policy, and when that happens, a reporter has to leave the paper," Editor Ken Paulson said. "When you see a pattern of misuse of quotes, you have to take steps."
But Squitieri's lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, said his client spoke to all the sources or their spokesmen, even though he ended up using the old quotes. "Tom spoke to each of these people directly, verified what the sound bite was in the past and sought their permission to use it," Cammarata said. "There was nothing inaccurate about it. . . . The suggestion that there was a pattern of misuse of quotes is not true."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Later read
USA Today: The delightful rag that ran stories during the Terri Schiavo judicial murder about haw starvation and dehydration allegedly caused euphoria and ecstasy in the victim.
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How much of this is just plain laziness. So few seem to want to do the hard work anymore. Or maybe they are just happy with things that support the outcome that they want.
I thought that was the LA Times that did that. It doesn't matter. USA Today is very liberal too.
Another one bites the dust. hahahahahahahaha
I always thought that he was reasonably close to unbiased when I saw him on TV, but I don't read USA Today (or any other newspaper).
Now he can join Barnicle and Doris Kearns Goodwin as a regular on the Imus show.
LOL. It is beginning to look like a last refuge, including one for aging, irrelevant politicians...McCain, Biden, et al.
and another fat bloated tick falls off the dog...
Could you ping this for me, buddy?
Don't let the door hit your butt on your way out!
Oh.......and by the way......GOOD RIDANCE!!!
eeeeek
too much hair, no brains, biased RAT
Willdo.
Sorry to be so late on the bounce on this one.
Got myself conned into being a taxi yesterday.
:(
Pinging all three lists in one shot.
Ping listers, seems reporter at the pentagon is in a bit of an 'oops'...
Interesting.
Mark Twain could easily have said that today.
Few in the press actuall research their own stories. Most in the press do what this guy got caught doing.
You can watch it in action. On any average story they all say the same thing. All the talking heads, hosts and print articles.
Its like there is one guy who wrote the original version and they all just rewrite it ad infinitum
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