Macon Telegraph reporter resigns over circus story plagiarism accusations

<p>Another reporter for The Macon Telegraph has left the newspaper over plagiarism accusations after editors found a story he wrote came from a weekly circus newsletter.</p><p>An investigation found that entertainment reporter Greg Fields' June 18 story about the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus coming to town was taken from the "Circus Report," a weekly newsletter for circus fans, executive editor Sherrie Marshall wrote in the newspaper Tuesday. Fields resigned Monday.</p><p>A circus public relations official alerted Telegraph editors to the story, saying it had inaccurately attributed statements to a circus spokesperson and had described the wrong version of the circus coming to Macon, Ga.</p><p>Editors later found Fields' story had been taken from a bylined story in the Circus Report that had been posted on the Ringling Bros.' Web site.</p><p>An investigation found that three of Fields' stories contained a sentence or paragraph similar to writing found in other newspaper stories or from Web sites, Marshall said.</p><p>Fields could not be reached for comment; The Associated Press could not locate a phone number for him.</p><p>In March, reporter Khalil Abdullah was fired after editors discovered that an article he wrote contained passages plagiarized from The San Diego Union-Tribune. Abdullah later admitted lifting material from other news organizations.</p><p>Editors found at least 20 of Abdullah's stories had passages and quotes lifted from other news sources, including the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, The Washington Post, The (Baltimore) Sun, The New York Times and The Associated Press, the Macon newspaper reported March 7.</p><p>"With Abdullah's firing came an opportunity to warn other reporters about the dangers of Web-based reporting. It's simply too easy to copy the work of another _ inadvertently or not," Marshall said.</p><p>Since Abdullah's firing, the newspaper has stepped up efforts to prevent plagiarism, including refusing to hire anyone known to have plagiarized before, using the Internet to check the news clips of reporter applicants and by inviting readers to call if they spot errors.</p><p>Staffers also must attend a session on credibility and ethics and beginning in August, random checks of reporters' clips will be conducted every six months, Marshall said.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/6/165780