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Today’s ODE Sports Coverage Brought to You by the AP

This paragraph is from an AP story by Michael Marot about Rulon Davis, a defensive-end competing in the NFL combine who survived a horrible accident:

In July 2005, he was rear-ended on a California highway, thrown off his motorcycle and into the path of an oncoming semitrailer, which ran over both his legs. Somehow, Davis survived with no broken bones and no ligament damage, though he couldn’t walk for a month and had to retrain his legs.

And this is a paragraph from today’s Oregon Daily Emerald article about the combine by Robert Husseman:

In July 2005, Davis was rear-ended by a semi on a California highway while riding a motorcycle, throwing him off the bike. The semi ran over both of Davis’ legs. Somehow, his bones weren’t broken and his ligaments weren’t damaged, but it took Davis a month to relearn how to walk.

Hmm.

UPDATE: Husseman also incorrectly listed the top four football positions in terms of highest average score on the Wonderlic test. (He claimed they were offensive tackle, quarterback, center and guard.) The correct order is offensive tackle, center, quarterback and guard.

  1. CJ Ciaramella says:

    Would this pass muster in a J-school class?

    Hell no.

    The difference, though, is that the ODE has a subscription to the AP wire, which means they pay to use AP stories. However, as T pointed out, papers always note when they supplement their stories with AP information. In this case, Husseman appears to have just dropped an AP paragraph into his story and slightly reworded it. If it’s not unethical, it’s at least really fucking lazy.

  2. nike urbanism duk says:

    CJ should take the Duck mascot’s current position as shadow editor of the Emerald once it becomes vacant.

  3. nike urbanism duk says:

    Step 1:Cut all funding for the Emerald.

    Step 2:Change Emerald boxes to charge a quarter per copy.

    Net result: Emerald is forced to change content to something actually worth reading which will cause students to put a quarter in the damn box and buy one. The Emerald is suffering from OSPIGG syndrome. It would be interesting to hear what their argument against that idea would be. Something like “The Emerald contributes to the culture blah blah blah community blah….”

  4. Vincent says:

    I guess the Emerald is too busy questioning the Commentator’s integrity to ensure that its writers aren’t stealing AP stories almost word for word.

  5. C.T. Behemoth says:

    Would this pass muster in a J-school class?

  6. T says:

    You can only use AP information if you pull the copy from the wire and then state that some of the copy came from AP reports. Otherwise, it’s iffy.

  7. Betz says:

    Can’t newspapers use AP stories in their paper?

  8. Gsim says:

    Is this an accusation of plagiarism? How embarrassing for the ODE.

  9. Ossie says:

    CJ, this sort of thing would NOT be happening if you were on the Ol’ Dirty Board of Directors. ‘Tis a shame.

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