I sent an e-mail to the exec editor and both sports editors and they are reviewing it, but the exec said that since it's not verbatim, he doesn't think it's plagiarism.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Mr. Bauer:

As to your first point: You're right. The article was insulting, and in poor taste.

As I'm sure you're aware, plagiarism is among the most serious of ethical breaches in journalism.

We take allegations seriously.

As such, I'm reviewing your assertions below. I've also asked the Missourian's managing editor and senior city editor to review them, as well as sports editor Greg Bowers.

So far, I've only looked at what you have here. At first blush, it doesn't appear to meet the threshold of plagiarism in terms of verbatim lifting of material. If the material was taken from Wikipedia, then it has been sufficiently rewritten.

Our policy also calls for material taken from a source to be attributed. If it's the kind of common knowledge that could be found in dozens of places, that's not such a big deal. Buffalo wings being invented in Buffalo, no buffalo in the city - that sort of thing. But there are some pretty specific and little-known facts in the piece. That's something I need to look into further.

None of those go to the first point, however. Regardless of where the information came from, it was a story best left unpublished.


Tom Warhover
Executive editor

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Doesn't matter....it's semantics.

Show a picture of a Bison to any random American and they'll tell you it's a Buffalo.
For all intents and purposes, that makes them Buffalos.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

come on, guys. dont ruin a kids career for this article. it was dumb to write, but to outside eyes, those are some hard truths.

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If he plagiarized, he's ruining his own career. Either way, one story won't make a difference for what's basically an 18 year old intern regardless of the volume of angry complaints.

What it will do is hold him to a higher standard, both with the Columbia Missourian, and when he looks in the mirror. Any writer should already know better than to plagiarize. This kid apparently needed to be told.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

valid point.

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I'd be willing to bet that plagiarism is so rampant these days, as long as you don't copy verbatim from someone who notices and gets pissed off, you're probably fine.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I'm just getting home from today's tourney games, and was very happy the see that the editors made the admission that the article was out of line.

Seems like the content of your letters was similar to what I was planning on writing Alex. Hope the kid learns something from all this.

I hear the crowd was very pro-WV at today's game. Makes my heart smile (even if it had nothing to do with the article's content).

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mechaphil

It was, but I think that had more to do with proximity. WV was represented very well all weekend actually.

There were a fair number of Mizzou supporters there too. Had to stay rooting for the Big East though.

He's a Turd Burglar

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"It is more about them than it is about the team...Cannot play with them, cannot win with them, cannot coach with them. Can't do it. I want winners. I want people that want to win." - Mike Singletary

Tyler Myers - Future captain of the Buffalo Sabres, and future Norris Trophy Winner

Manning the machine gun on the Tyler Myers Bandwagon - just in case any teams have an idea of prying him away from us (3 GM's shot already)

Connolly/Roy - 2 goals in the last 47 playoff games

It was verbatim, and they were facts to begin with... I wouldn't call it plagiarism

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When I was a boy I spoke as a boy, I understood as a boy, and I thought as a boy; when I became a man I took that boy outside and shot him.

Wouldn't copying something verbatim without properly acknowledging the original creator be a textbook case of plagiarism?

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mechaphil

Assuming pant meant that it wasn't plagiarism because it wasn't verbatim:


pla·gia·rism
–noun
1.
the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.

Since several of Ruppenthal's sentences wither closely (with a lone word changed) or identically mirror wikipedia, he is plagiarizing.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I think it's so weird that thoughts can be copyrighted. Just a completely bizarre concept to me.

But, yeah, that's plagiarism. If you even take the idea without crediting the original source, that's plagiarism.

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Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran

Couldn't that guy just wrote Buffalo sucks and and basically his same message would have been clear without all the other cheap shots?

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it's nothing that hasn't been articulated in many, many other articles or interviews. people are too bent out of shape about it.

That's why people are bent out of shape about it, Pat. Because he chose to take that route of rehashing old, worn-out cliches and open up old wounds that just don't heal.

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mechaphil

i kind of agree with pat. i really didnt take to much offense to that article. granted, im not actually from buffalo (been their plenty to visit family and such) but i do take pride in the city. i really just found the rehashing of old jokes to be a lame attempt at serious journalism. the tone didnt help.

like writing an article about Chicago and saying that "our politicians are crooked, its cold as balls and the Cubs suck"...yes, everyone who lives here is well aware of that...

was the article annoying, yes. was enough to induce rage, no.

but to each his own.

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Check out my website: http://www.artistzero.com

"That wasn't very nice...I do believe you killed my hat."

Driver of the FIRE LINDY RUFF Bandwagon since 2008.

Yeah, I'm used to the criticism. It doesn't bother me at all, because like I said in an earlier post, the things that cause me to love Buffalo aren't exactly tangible, and it's like that with every city for those who love it. He said nothing at all, in my eyes. I take offense when people say that Buffalonians are cold and uncaring, for example.

Michiana is a complete dump with no redeeming concrete characteristics, but I can see why people live here regardless of that.

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Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran