Deadspin.com today has uncovered a pretty serious incident of plagiarism of a mainstream media organization of a member of what is considered the ‘Blogosphere’ in RealGM.com. Although many bloggers consider RealGM.com to have outgrown the ‘blogger’ status, it doesn’t change the fact that the Juggernaut that is ESPN, plagiarized the report of a RealGM writer, WORD FOR WORD on the air in last night’s ESPN SportsCenter telecast. The report in question was news that Dwight Howard had met with Magic GM Rob Hennigan and reiterated his desire to leave town. Deadspin had this message for ESPN:
ESPN didn’t even make a token attempt at paraphrasing; Lynn Hoppes would be proud. The Worldwide Leader not only reported the work of another journalist without attribution, they did so WORD-FOR-WORD. If SportsCenter was a college student, it would be facing expulsion. SportsCenter read a shorter version of the report a half hour later, again using phrases lifted directly from Rudolph’s piece.
We reached out to ESPN spokesperson Josh Krulewitz to comment on this, but received an “out of the office” message. If anyone at ESPN would like to explain to us how this happened, we’re all ears.
Here is the transcript from the ESPN SportsCenter Report:
Orlando Magic General Manager Rob Hennigan met with the franchise’s disenchanted superstar Dwight Howard today in Los Angeles and according to sources, Hennigan traveled to LA to have this face-to-face discussion with Howard with the hopes of persuading him back off his trade request and allow the organization more time to build a championship contender. Hennigan was unsuccessful in his pitch however, as Howard reiterated his desire to leave Orlando as soon as possible.
And you can compare it to the text from RealGM.com in their Report
Orlando Magic General Manager Rob Hennigan met with the franchise’s disenchanted superstar Dwight Howard on Wednesday in Los Angeles, sources have confirmed to RealGM. Hennigan traveled to Los Angeles to have a face-to-face discussion with Howard with the hopes of persuading him to back off his trade request and allow the organization more time to build a championship contender. Hennigan, however, was unsuccessful in his pitch as Howard reiterated his desire to leave Orlando as soon as possible, according to sources.
