Word for Word: Newark Advocate editors mirror Plain Dealer editorial

On November 21, the Gannett-owned Newark Advocate published an editorial praising Bob Taft for his latest opposition to House Bill 12. That editorial was published in the Lancaster Eagle Gazette (another Gannett paper) three days later, on November 24. Eagle-Gazette editors gave no credit to the editors of the Newark Advocate on their website - readers were left to assume editors in Lancaster wrote the piece.

At least that bit of cut-and-paste was "in the family". But now there's more of the same going around at Gannett, and this time it's not the Gannett "family" they're mirroring.

A Dec. 4 Advocate editorial, entitled "Criminals will check records of gun
owners? Yeah, right", is a word-for-word copy of a Nov. 30 Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial, entitled Silly idea deserves serious veto. As with the Lancaster paper Nov. 24, Gannett's Newark Advocate editors give no credit to the Plain Dealer on the Advocate's website*.

We'd like to think that's because they deserve no credit.

OFCC's Greg Kopp had this to say after reading the Plain Dealer's editorial:

"The Plain Dealer thinks it is "ridiculous" for supporters of HB12 to want
to keep the names, birth dates and counties of residence private. Yet, they
have no rational reason to make this information public, only irrational
speculation.

HB12 already requires Sheriffs to maintain a non-public database of
licensees and the Attorney General's office is required to release
statistics about issuance and revocations. Opponents of HB12 are now saying
it is "necessary" to know if their neighbors have licenses to carry.

Toby Hoover of the "Ohio Coalition Against Gun Safety" (as her organization
was aptly described recently in the Dayton Daily News) thinks employers
should use this information when determining hiring and firing policies.

What's next? Should medical records be released so that newspapers can
publish lists of HIV infected persons? Don't I have the right to know if my
son's teacher has this deadly disease? Maybe people should register their
religious beliefs with the state, so the self-righteous like Hoover don't
have to live next to "those" kind of people.

The actress Rebecca Shaefer was stalked and murdered by Robert John Bardo
because driver's license information was easily obtained for a small fee.
This prompted federal legislation making the dissemination of such
information illegal. Why is this any different? The legislature should
ignore Taft, override his potential veto and not give McCarthyists like Toby
Hoover another tool to harass honest people."

Not only are these Gannett newspapers guilty of misrepresenting someone else's words as their own, Newark Advocate editors are also guilty of representing someone else's FALSE words as their own.

*UPDATE: We have learned that the Advocate DID credit the Plain Dealer in their print version, just not on their website. The following was sent in reply to a query with the newspaper:

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 9:36 AM
Subject: RE: Online Editorial

Our online producers inadvertently cut the Plain Dealers's credit line, which is a major mistake. We will take steps to make sure this does not happen again.

Michael Shearer
Managing Editor
The Advocate
NewarkAdvocate.com
22 N. 1st St.
Newark, OH 43055
[email protected]