….and that nightmare is Duane Lester, a hard-working, honest, courageous, organized and determined blogger who wasn’t going to let a newspaper rip him off and get away with it. Lester researched and posted an original local news story, a true scoop, and days letter was shocked to find that a local paper, the Oregon Times Observer, had lifted his entire post and put it on the paper’s front page, without credit, permission, or attribution. Shocked and unprepared for such flagrant and shameless appropriation of his labors, he researched the issue, wrote a letter, and then visited the paper to demand payment. Brilliantly, he also brought along a friend with a video camera.
The whole story, as well as the enlightening and satisfying confrontation between the Blogger and the Word Thief, is on the resulting video. There is a lot to see here.
We see, for example, the perfect and ethical way to handle a confrontation. Lester is never rude; he never raises his voice or engages in name calling. He knows he is in the right, and he persists in insisting on what is owed to him despite the aggravating conduct of the guilty editor, Ripley. In Ripley we see an unethical individual caught in misconduct by the person he wronged, yet without the character, decency or common sense to admit his wrongful act, apologize for it, or demonstrate any remorse or shame whatsoever. We see Ripley attempt to intimidate Lester; we also see him grasp desperately at rationalizations to excuse his inexcusable conduct, most of which don’t even make any sense. In a final display of defiant jerkism, we see him write out the check for $500 demanded by Lester, and learn that in the subject line at the bottom, he wrote “Bullshit.” Yes, having to ask permission before you steal a writer’s work is bullshit; crediting the writer of a story your paper puts on the front page to attract purchasers is bullshit; paying for what you took is bullshit.
And I thought the new generation of journalists were unethical. Naturally, Lester’s reaction upon being called on his own plagiarism—anger, meanness, and shamelessness—reminded me of my own clash with a plagiarist, California lawyer Mary Fances Prevost, who stole one of my blog posts. Like Ripley, her immediate reaction was anger, insults, and attempted intimidation; she also resorted to one of the rationalizations Lester’s familiar, a sycophantic woman by his side whose inane running commentary is one of the joys of the video, trots out, the “this-is-such-a-trivial-thing-why-don’t-you-get-a -life?” deflection, though in Lester’s case it’s the “why-are-you-picking-on-a-poor-little-small-town-newspaper?” version. This is how unethical people behave, as opposed to good people who have strayed into unethical conduct. They aren’t sorry, they are angry. They don’t want to fix the problem; they want to attack the person who caught them. Prevost and Ripley are two of a kind.
It is Lester, however, who shines. His video could be used in classes on how to maintain your composure, dignity and moral superiority in the face of callous wrongdoing. As great an Ethics Dunce as Ripley is, he is a greater Ethics Hero.
______________________________
Pointer: Patrick at Popehat
Facts: American Blogger
Source: Gizmodo
Ethics Alarms attempts to give proper attribution and credit to all sources of facts, analysis and other assistance that go into its blog posts. If you are aware of one I missed, or believe your own work was used in any way without proper attribution, please contact me, Jack Marshall, at jamproethics@verizon.net.
Ethics Alarms 
We should endeavor to find out Mr. Ripley’s middle initial, so we can call him R. X. Ripley and avoid harming the reputation of Robert Ripley from Ripley’s Believe it or Not!
You are channeling me, Jeff. The original Ripley is one of my favorite people, cartoonists, and oddball. It bothered me to use his name like this too.
Ooh! OOH! How about instead of calling him Robert, we call him “Rob?”
“Bobby”?
No, rob as in “robbery” as in steal as in what he did.
Boy, am I slow today. Yes. Excellent.
My first-ever news report as a young staff reporter for a small town newspaper was plagiarized in a similar manner by the larger newspaper in the city, but back then I was too flattered and ignorant to be offended. Now as a full time professional resume writer (CPRW), I’ve discovered that some of the resume samples I’ve posted online to attract customers have been plagiarized (and used on LinkedIn). After seeing this video and reading your commentary, I’m inclined to be more diligent about going after resume plagiarists with an invoice.
You and Duane Lester are my ethics heroes! I read you daily and love your blog. Thanks for the work you do.
~Christine
Terrific post. And this sort of behavior is, alas, becoming more common. And will continue to become more common. The woman’s statement that it’s been repeated a lot of places–as if that makes reprinting it without attribution or permission OK–is one I could imagine a lot of people making,
I was right there with you, I was agreeing with everything. Then you wrote “moral superiority”. :sigh:
What’s wrong with moral superiority when we’re talking about a thief and his innocent victim? Theft is one of those things that is clearly immoral under all moral codes, and unethical per se. If it makes you feel better, I did pause before I wrote it, because I don’t care for the phrase or the concept. Here, I think it’s fair.
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I think the most fascinating part of all of this is in the video. Rob initially gets up out of his chair, gives him a cold stare, and moves forward in a direct confrontational style to meet him nose to nose. When the woman mentions the video camera, his demeanor visibly changes.
It’s a fantastic video, and could sustain a whole program of analysis in several disciplines.
I thought Rob might have just been trying to save face until he wrote “bullshit” on the check.
Yes, that was the watermark of an irredeemable jerk.
I can see where this is a personal issue with you, Jack. But, of course, it goes beyond that. There’s a whole legion of people out there who think that the term “journalist” (when applied to them) gives them a superior status and absolves them from all consideration to lesser humans. Every time one of them is brought down or humbled, the country gets a little freer.
He is known as Bob and his “journalism” is legendary in these parts. (tongue in cheek)
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