Reporters are listed in alphabetical order by last name.

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• Scott Taylor (Winnipeg Free Press) – Taylor, a sports writer for the Winnipeg Free Press, resigned after being accused of plagiarism in an article written about NFL rule enforcement.  Taylor denied the charge of plagiarism stating that he willingly resigned at a meeting with Free Press editor Nicholas Hirst and was unaware the paper would be issuing an apology and accuse him of plagiarism for his November 5, 2004 column.  "I resigned over a number of things. It was part of the discussion on Friday but it wasn't at the top of the list," Taylor said, adding he shook hands and cordially parted company with Hirst.  In Hirst's printed apology, a claim was made that the column in question "wrongly presented" a quote from the American newspaper USA Today "as the original work of a Free Press writer."  Taylor denied the claim. "I never even saw that story," he said.  While the Free Press did not name the writer, Taylor said he was immediately identified by other media. "Whether it's true or not, it's basically a death sentence," said Taylor. "I can't defend myself from it."  Source: Taylor denies plagiarism; Free Press Writer Quits,” Winnipeg Sun (Manitoba, Canada), November 25, 2004.

• Zachary Townsend (Brown Daily Herald) – Student columnist Zachary Townsend of the Brown Daily Herald was fired in Nov. 2007 after editors discovered that six of his columns included plagiarized material. Townsend also plagiarized a letter to the editor that was published in the New York Times. Source: Craig Silverman, "Plagiarism at the Brown Daily Herald," Regret the Error, Nov. 9, 2007.

• Thomas Vincent (South China Morning Post) – Thomas Vincent, a British reporter working for the English-language South China Morning Post, was fired in December 1998, shortly after he produced an article for the Post's soccer supplement that he attributed to himself although it later emerged that most of the piece had appeared previously in London's Sunday Times. Vincent sued the paper in a Hong Kong court which later awarded him $171,426.70 ($21,978 U.S. dollars) for wrongful dismissal on the grounds that the newspaper had terminated Vincent's contract without prior warning. By October 2003, however, an appeals court reversed the earlier ruling, saying that the judge in the case erred in awarding Vincent compensation. The Post was awarded court costs, but still was required to pay $79,120 for contractual end of year payments to Vincent. Text excerpted from: "Judge erred in ruling on dismissal of plagiarist," South China Morning Post, October 15, 2003; "Hong Kong court tells newspaper to compensate journalist fired for plagiarism," Associated Press, May 3, 2002.

• Kaavya Viswanathan (The Record, Bergen County, NJ) – Viswanathan, a Harvard University sophomore, was accused of plagiarism in her debut novel, “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,” after extensive similarities were discovered between Viswanathan’s novel and two works by author Megan McCafferty.  Also, The Harvard Crimson student newspaper, alerted by reader e-mails, reported that “Opal Mehta” contained passages similar to Meg Cabot’s 2000 novel, “The Princess Diaries.”  The New York Times also reported comparable material in Viswanathan’s novel and Sophie Kinsella’s “Can You Keep a Secret?”  The plagiarism allegations caused The Record newspaper of Bergen County, New Jersey to investigate roughly two dozen articles that Viswanathan wrote while a summer features intern at the newspaper in 2003 and 2004.  A preliminary review by editors, conducted by reading and using Google searches, did not reveal any problem with her writing.  The Record will also vet her articles through LexisNexis, a public records database.  According to The Record’s editor Frank Scandale, “In Kaavya’s case, there were no indications, no alarms, that any of her stories were made up.”  Scandale added that interns typically are given lighter stories with little deadline pressure constraints very different from those Viswanathan undoubtedly labored under while trying to finish her book and carry a full course load at Harvard.  After the plagiarism allegations, Viswanathan’s two-book deal with publisher Little, Brown and Co. was canceled.  Text excerpted from: Hillel Italie, “Young Harvard author’s book deal canceled,” The Associated Press, May 3, 2006; Catherine Hollahan, “Teen loses book deal; More novels apparently plagiarized,” The Record (Bergen County, NJ), May 3, 2006.

• WBTV News (Charlotte, NC) – “A WBTV television news producer was fired for plagiarism after the station discovered that a report on a Monday, February 21, 2005 newscast contained two sentences copied verbatim from a story in Sunday’s Charlotte Observer.  The story, about development in Cabarrus County, was published in Sunday's Cabarrus Neighbors section and available online on charlotte.com.  The script, read by anchor Tonia Bendickson, included the first paragraph of the story, written by Observer reporter Ronnie Glassberg.  WBTV’s news director Dennis Milligan said he learned about the verbatim duplication when Scott Verner, editor in the Observer's Concord bureau, called to complain about the lack of attribution after hearing Glassberg's story read on the newscast.  The station aired an apology to its viewers and the newspaper in its 6 p.m. newscast on February 23.  Saying it was a personnel matter, WBTV would not identify the producer responsible for the story, but a memo to newsroom staff said the person had been fired. Producers work behind the scenes, directing reporters and photographers, assembling scripts and organizing the newscasts.” Source: Mark Washburn, “Producer is fired for plagiarism,” The Charlotte Observer, February 24, 2005.

• Stephen Wigler (Baltimore Sun) – Music critic Stephen Wigler was fired in November 1999 after a reader pointed out that his Nov. 15 review of the Baltimore Opera's "La Traviata" included an unattributed excerpt from "The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera," Sources: “Newspaper music critic dismissed for alleged plagiarism,” The Associated Press, November 26, 1999; “Ethical Lapses,” American Journalism Review, March 2001 compiled by Lori Robertson and Christopher Sherman.

• R. Foster Winans (Wall Street Journal) – Winans, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was convicted in 1985 of various mail and wire fraud charges -- stemming from insider trading on information that was to appear in his Journal column -- and served nine months in prison. Today he says he's "fulfilled" as a ghostwriter (12 books), and his book about his own case was a best seller. He also has launched a lecture career, speaking to law enforcement groups and journalism, law and business students about his precedent-setting case and his views about insider trading, white-collar crime and corporate wrongdoing. Source: Maria Puente, “Disgrace, dishonor, infamy: They're not so bad anymore,” USA Today, May 22, 2003.

• Gabriel Wisdom (Public Radio’s ‘Marketplace’) – In his June 13, 2005 commentary for the public radio show ‘Marketplace’ about the money immigrants bring into the US economy and a theory that the money could be strengthening the dollar, investment adviser Gabriel Wisdom lifted, virtually word for word, several lengthy passages from an article written by journalist Daniel Gross for his ‘Moneybox’ column on the Slate Magazine web site.  During the segment, Wisdom also suggested questions to ‘Marketplace’ interviewer, Lisa Napoli, which were lifted from the Slate article.  “It certainly looks pretty incontrovertible that Wisdom appropriated complete phrases from somebody else’s work,” said ‘Marketplace’ executive producer J.J. Yore.  Wisdom, who works for California-based American Money Management and hosts a call-in show on KLSX in Los Angeles, told the Washington Post that he twice credited author and securities executive Michael Panzer, whom Gross extensively credited in his piece for the theory about immigrants, but said that attribution was edited out by producers.  Wisdom also said that he did not realize some of the ideas came from Gross and that he should have credited him for a “terrific” Slate column.  ‘Marketplace’ dropped Wisdom as a contributor and will broadcast an on-air apology, is scrutinizing previous segments involving Wisdom, and is conducting a review of its relationship with freelance contributors.  ‘Marketplace,’ which is produced in Los Angeles by American Public Media, is carried by public radio stations across the country.  Text excerpted from: Howard Kurtz, “’Marketplace’ Drops Contributor Over Plagiarism,” The Washington Post, June 24, 2005; Gregory Alan Gross and Karen Kucher, “KPBS, ‘Marketplace’ drop local contributor in plagiarism flap,” San Diego Union-Tribune, June 24, 2005.

• Alex Wolsky (Michigan Daily) – Wolsky, a writer for the Michigan Daily, a University of Michigan student newspaper, was fired after the paper discovered that Wolsky plagiarized five articles, mostly album reviews, published in the paper in 2003 and 2004.  Source: “The Daily will not tolerate plagiarism,” University Wire, November 17, 2004.

• Elizabeth Wurtzel (Dallas Morning News)  - Wurtzel was fired by The Dallas Morning News for plagiarism, then went on to write for both New York magazine and The New Yorker. Now she writes best sellers, including Prozac Nation and Bitch. For the latter book, she appeared topless on the cover with her middle finger raised. Source: Maria Puente, “Disgrace, dishonor, infamy: They're not so bad anymore,” USA Today, May 22, 2003.

• Yomiuri Shimbun – The Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun reprimanded two editors and a writer for publishing an article in its weekly magazine that was based on Internet sources with content believed to be from the Nikkei Business magazine.  The Yomiuri Weekly cut the salaries of the magazine’s chief editor and another editor, and suspended the latter from work for a week.  The magazine also cut 10 percent from the payment for a contract writer who interviewed sources and wrote the article under the editor’s instructions.  The article in question was a feature on Yoshiaki Murakami, and investment fund company president, in the Yomiuri Weekly’s October 30, 2005 edition.  Text excerpted from: “Yomiuri Shimbun to reprimand editors, writer over plagiarism,” Japan Economic Newswire, November 18, 2005.

• Zi Beijia (Beijing Television) - Chinese police arrested Beijing Television journalist Zi Beijia in July 2007, accusing Zi of faking an investigative report on buns stuffed with shredded cardboard. Zi's footage appeared to show a makeshift kitchen where vendors made fluffy buns stuffed with chopped-up cardboard that had been softened in caustic soda and mixed with pork fat and flavoring. Zi allegedly offered to do a story about poor hygeine at meat bun stalls but failed to find any problems during two weeks of reporting. Facing pressure from his editor, he decided to fake the news, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. The story, allegedly shot with a hidden camera, gained worldwide media attention after it aired on Beijing Television's Life Channel on July 8, and again three days later on China Central Television. Zi's report later made the rounds on the Internet, appearing on the YouTube web site. Beijing Television apologized during an evening news broadcast, saying the bun report was a hoax and the reporter was taken into custody. In August 2007, Zi pleaded guilty to charges of infringing on the reputation of a commodity. A Chinese court sentenced Zi to one year in jail and a fine of $132. At least seven other individuals were fired or reprimanded as a result of the false report. Text excerpted from: Audra Ang, "China Says Cardboard Bun Report Was Fake," The Associated Press, July 19, 2007; "7 more people penalized in China over fake story about cardboard-filled street snacks", The Associated Press, July 20, 2007; "China sentences reporter who faked cardboard buns story to 1 year in jail," The Associated Press, August 13, 2007.

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