Columnist Fired for Plagiarizing Blog on Plagiarism to Write Column On Plagiarism
Jan. 31, 2008 - The Daily Toreador’s editorial board was made aware by a Texas Tech faculty member of an instance of plagiarism.
Columnist Ty McDonald took direct statements, ideas and content from “Plagiarism and intellectual loot,” a post on Christiaan Briggs’ Weblog located at http://last-straw.net for two of his articles: “A new way to think about thoughts” and “Plagiarism is not a sin.”
As a student-run publication, it is the responsibility of The DT to inform its readers of instances that compromise the integrity of the newspaper and the academic institution it serves.
Plagiarism is a serious offense in any forum and is also a very serious problem within our society. Such occurrences take place in professional publications and are just as prevalent in the educational system Â- but in no way, shape or form should they ever be tolerated.
Because of his actions, McDonald has been removed from his position with The DT. The policy of the editorial board for a plagiarism offense is immediate termination, a printed statement informing readers of the incident and a report of the violation being sent to Student Judicial Services.
We would like to formally apologize to our readers for this transgression and also to express our gratitude to the associate professor who brought the incident to our attention.
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