Talent borrows, genius steals
Oops, so sorry, we just realised we plagiarised that nifty line you see in the header above from the great Stephen Morrissey.
Oh well, as the old saying has it, nothing in the world is original — only the way in which it is applied. And, truth be told, we feel like offering a bit of solidarity towards Noelle McCarthy over the media treatment she received this past weekend, when a small number of her articles and columns were deemed of sufficiently compelling interest by the Sunday Star-Times to warrant a manifestly overlong story on their purported similarities with a number of previously published British pieces.
Despite having spent the better part of a week poring over McCarthy’s efforts, reporter Kim Knight came up with nothing more earth-shattering than the fact that McCarthy reads fairly widely when it comes to British papers, and yes, she had probably been a bit naughty in riffing a little too hard on a few of their recent reports. But did that pretty inconsequential discovery justify anything more than a small aside in a media column?
As it happens, we’ve spent some effort in the past looking at real plagiarism scandals — you know, the ones involving entire chapters of books, existing scholarly essays and questions of wholesale academic integrity — and we’ve also ribbed McCarthy from time to time over other matters.
We’re also aware that, at the other end of the spectrum, some cases involving alleged plagiarism can be relatively harmless or at any rate understandable.
Involving as it does just a few words and the odd phrase here and there, this latest one simply doesn’t make the serious cut. Especially not in a country where slapping new intros on to a press release and running the lot as a news piece is standard fare among many overworked reporters.
Also, and this seems important, did the original authors of those British reports in question actually make any reported fuss?
Since this is all about honesty and ethics, we’d suggest the Sunday Star-Times now look at devoting equal space in the coming weeks to what seems to be a rather more pertinent question: Was McCarthy’s purported crime of the century really any worse than a national newspaper using a young journalist as a handy whipping girl to spite its major newspaper rival?
Back to home
Back to top
Print
Email
Share
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
Scoopit
NBR SERVICES
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Sign up for NBR subscriber content or email alerts
Latest
Comments and questions23
Without cut and paste there wouldn't be much left to read.
That is very gallant of you, defending pretty young lady reporters like that. Didn't she just look lovely on election night?
whomoi:
Yes, we saw her on election night, and couldn't really understand what she was on about. Can't recall too much else, sorry.
I couldn't agree more. Overkill writ large!
The SST made a mountain out of a molehill. This poor attempt at "investigative journalism" involved deep and meaningful research and analysis. The reporter rang a couple of journalism tutors and a legal copyright expert to seek vexatious comments and had some geek run Noelle's words through the "Turnitin Originality Programme" designed to catch students cheating on their assignments. Wow!!
The reporter also discovered that Ms McCarthy had been a sometime waitress at Ponsonby's "Prego" Restaurant. Did she wash dirty dishes, I wonder? Perhaps the SST missed another scoop by now following that line of inquiry.
The SST led with a story an even more sensational investigative piece. A tale Tony Veitch which came hot off the spinning wheel of his agent Glenda Hughes.
Keep digging you fearless scribes... I can't wait for the next breathless instalment.
When I used to eat at Prego (usually on a Friday afternoon, either before 12.30pm or after 1.45pm, ending some time around 4.30pm), I used to order a nice bottle of dessert wine, a pot of really strong English Breakfast tea, a side of mash - with extra cheese, the vine tomatoes, pizza bread (never the whole bread loaf option, that's a bit filling), and two sides of steamed broccoli.
If the bottle of wine ran out, I'd ask the waitress for a recommended glass of pinot.
I prefer South Island pinot, but I was often swayed into trying an Italian red.
Before drinking the red, I'd wash my mouth out with a glass of sparkling water - usually bought by someone from a table next to me, normally a film company, media shop, ad agency, or TBWA.
Actually, in retrospect, it was usually TBWA.
I remember Noelle because I couldn't understand a word she said when she read out the specials. I knew the pan-fried snapper was always on the menu, but I hate bones, so it was never an option.
One Friday lunch, she was no longer there. I tried sitting at an inside table, but she was gone.
I had to resort to ordering the Surf'n'turf. Which was quite nice.
A few years later and I'm in Waihi Beach, watching the elections, drinking far too many Emerson Pilsner's, cooled to 4 degrees, in a glass, 500ml, with a handle.
Suddenly, on the telly, is my former waitress from Prego.
I tried texting in my final order of vine tomatoes and mash to the TV station, but the message must have got lost.
Since the day Noelle left Prego, I've never again ordered the vine tomatoes, mash, pizza bread, steamed broccoli x2, dessert wine, pot of strong English Breakfast tea combination.
A lot has changed since those days in 2001.
I always thought the National Programme was a bastion of good standards and the place to rely on for accurate information.
Sean can be a bit aggro in the mornings and so can that razor tongued Mary Wilson at night but you don't feel they are making it up but I can't stand Noelle if I am listening while driving to meet clients in the afternoon and now I read about her in the Sunday paper I always knew she was phoney.
and i;ve heard though she's pretty good fun at a party and can go all night
Doesn't the NZ weekend press have more to occupy itself with than trivial inhouse journo issues and vast acres of coverage to the latest child-murder and why everyone else is to blame??
I'm NOT a journalist (I'm an engineer( but if I dared treat my clients like that they'd be off like a shot to get their advise from other people!!!
and its public money too that funds Radio NZ maybe the Nats will have a good look at them if they let that gross waste of money go on while the economy is in trouble!
Surely the issues is it is about ethics and not lying, maybe those values don;t mean anything in the world of media peoples
I'm afraid I can't agree with you.
Here is a young journalist in a new country, striving to develop for herself a reputation on which she can capitalize.. Part of that reputation is the style and manner of her writing and clearly some of what we were led to believe was her style and manner is that of someone else. She simply pinched it.
All your justification, moral relativism, excusing and wriggling can't get away from that. She pinched it and used it for pecuniary gain.
It's very much like signing someone else's paintings, don't you think?
I'm just glad David Cohen has upgraded his crush from Russel Brown to Noelle McCarthy. As they used to say when I was a boy, she has fine pins. In fact, when I was a lad ... ouch, what the, aaahh ... (sound of a body being stuffed into a vinyl 1970s era Air New Zealand travel bag).
Adolf fiinkensein:
"All your justification, moral relativism, excusing and wriggling can't get away from that. She pinched it and used it for pecuniary gain."
What's moral relativism got to do with it? This is all about news judgment. Yes, McCarthy did something silly, and if she's smart she won't do it again. Our question was simply whether this petty transgression ever was of such abiding importance that it deserved half a broadsheet news page in a national paper. We think not.
"It's very much like signing someone else's paintings, don't you think?"
No. It's rather like someone using one or two tiny bits of colour from someone else's painting and dabbing it on their own canvas in a notably similar fashion.
David Cohen - have you read McCarthy's Oct 22 essay in its entirety?
It is an exact replication of the structure, theme and content of the Observer's Oct 19 article.
McCarthy has appropriated whole paragraphs of copy, and in some instances replicated them, verbatim as her own.
It is disgraceful journalism. She is a thief. And in blatant breach of Radio NZ policy.
Sarah Washington:
Well, the essay in question can be downloaded there:
http://www.pluggd.tv/audio/channels/afternoons_with_jim_mora/episodes/4y1jx
And the Observer piece by Vanessa Thorpe can be seen there:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/oct/19/horror-film-zombie-vampire-halloween
McCarthy's effort is not, as you argue, an "exact replication of the structure, theme and content of the Observer's," although it does take a couple of obvious liberties that could have been easily avoided by citing the source.
This is NOT, as we've argued, serious national news, but rather a relatively isolated case of poor judgment.
So apparently she made a mistake and won't do it again. Thank heavens! All is well in the world! I don't think so. It doesn't work that way.
Plagerism is not a mistake. You actively seek info, cut and paste, you actively submit that work as your own. You are actively lying.
If, as she has claimed, it was a genuine mistake, shouldn't we be wondering why someone of such limited intelligence and poor judgement has the position at RNZ National that she as?
Who hired someone that stupid? And wouldn't this suggest that maybe she shouldn't be there? That perhaps she best go get some training so as to not make the same mistake again. Plus what else has she done that hasn't been caught?
Does seh really get the emails she mentions? The texts? I seriously doubt it. She is ruining the reputation of what was a bastion of journalistic ethics.
And I think it is worth noting that the one time we can be absolutely sure she wasn't cutting and pasting every time she opened her mouth was her election coverage. Which was to be blunt, quite awful. Why WAS she there?
I just read her Oct 22 stuff thanks for the link! She's worse than what was on the Sunday papers what does the National Progamme think hiring a fraudster like her that is just shameful and terrible.
I agree with the poster above you can't believe anything she says now .
our taxes pay for her wages and I don;t want mine going to someone who rips off stuff so I hope the Nats look into this.
...yawn.
I can't find it online (it appears to have conveniently disappeared), but the HOS actually reported the "story" as well, so it's not just the SST. Added to that Noelle has suffered the indignity of being attacked by a fellow Herald columnist for the crime of being young, fun and going out at night to be photographed.
I think the poor lass has been more than rucked over by her own. She's written hundreds of thousands of words since arriving in NZ, many very good, amusing and original in entirely in her own style.
But this won't do her any harm at all, every lasting broadcaster in NZ attracts controversy, Paul Holmes has spent half his career elbow high in the mire..most quit or get sacked, get rehired, curse, face assault charges, buy planes and homes and flash cars.
It's the old hacks that no one bothers talking about anymore that should be worried. And worried enough they seem to be to have a go at McCarthy, who although exhibits signs of random Pinkoninity, is an okay sort of chick.
I mean it's not as if she lied or passed-off anything to keep/get a job.
TBH, if you're a content-provider the only thing you have is your words & ideas, and if they're appropriated from others... well you deserve everything you get.
Her crime is theft of others work, pure & simple nothing to with her attractiveness or otherwisee.
Link is here: www.stuff.co.nz/4773992a1860.html.
Oh and as RNZ seem to have "sacked" here, it seems at least they have some regard for IP
There's an article in stuff today saying she says she admits she breached the rules wow but she's keeping her job so much for standards.....didn't Clint brown resign after he did some biffo but stealing is not the same aye?
I sometimes read her columns in granny herald but they are just raves about nothing really and she might have written thousands or words but does that mean they are hers?
The quote "talent borrows, genius steals" is actually attributed to Pablo Picasso. Morrissey stole it.
It's not what she may or may not have done,and forget the accent;I can listen to Rev. Paisley all day.
It's the 20-grit emery-cloth voice that triggers my off-switch.
David -- there's really no comparison, in terms of journalistic ethics, between the common practice of cutting-and-pasting from press releases and the alleged plagiarism of Noelle McCarthy. As all working journalists know, press releases are supplied to all media to use as they see fit. It's the media statement of a person or organisation. If you or I worked on a newspaper and received a release from, say, the office of John Key commenting on, say, the Air NZ crash last week, we would put his quotes in our own story about the crash. That's not even remotely like plagiarism.
Noelle repeatedly forgot to make the necessary attributions. Listeners assumed that those top-of-the-hour monologues were the original thoughts of Noelle. If she had filed the same talks as a newspaper column under her byline, she would be out the door, no question.
She was on ova the summer but I had to switch her off.
hopefully she won't be back and isn't plagiarism another word for theft.
Post new comment or question
To share this article, click on a service below