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Tell the Toledo Free Press to keep their promises

The Toledo Free Press apparently has a plagiarism problem. The Toledo Blade highlights once such instance uncovered by a University of Toledo professor, Mary Linehan. Ms Linehan discovered some unattributed work in the Free Press and informed TFP's publisher and president Tom Pounds in a letter. The letter went unanswered by Mr Pounds, but instead found it's way into the hands of the author of the plagiarized work--Gregg Schwartz. What happened next, is beyong the pale.

Ms. Linehan said she did not receive a reply to her letter to Mr. Pounds and it wasn't published in the Free Press with other letters to the editor. She said Mr. Schwartz took her letter to former UT board of trustees Chairman Rick Stansley in an effort to get her disciplined.

"What really makes some furious and angry and outraged and makes me feel threatened as an individual is that the Free Press would give Gregg my letter without bothering to answer it and send him on his way to hassle me," she said.

Mr. Stansley confirmed that Mr. Schwartz, who was formerly his personal trainer, approached him with the letter and that he is required to look into allegations of wrongdoing.

But Mr. Stansley said a quick read of the letter and an informal conversation with the head of UT's human resources department showed that Ms. Linehan wrote the letter on behalf of her class and she had done nothing wrong.

It is unknown if Mr Pounds had deliberately given Ms Linehan's letter to Mr Schwartz with the intent of harassing the UT professor. The Blade said that Mr Pounds did not return their calls.

According to The Blade, this is the fourth instance of plagiarism at the Toledo Free Press. After a recent plagiarism episode involving former Lucas County Commissioner and Tom Noe "conduit" Maggie Thurber, editor-in-chief Michael Miller penned a column in which he promised this:

"I am reaching out to our readership with this promise: From this issue forward, if you spot an instance in which a Toledo Free Press contributor has used another writer’s work without proper attribution, and you are the first to notify us, we will make a cash donation to the charity of your choice. We will ask that you provide your name, occupation and e-mail or phone number for our records, along with evidence of the offending material and its original source."
Despite the fact that Michael Miller's promise was written after the incident involving Ms Linehan, under the circumstances, it would seem the prudent and honorable thing to do would be to make good on this promise and offer a cash donation to the charity of Ms Linehan's choice.

Please contact Michael Miller and request that he follows through on his promises.


mmiller@toledofreepress.com
419-241-1700

(cross-posted at The Nookular Option)

created by nookular-option on Jul 04, 2009 at 03:31:00 pm     Comments: 4

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Comments ... #

WOW. I wonder if we hold The Blade to such high standards and scrutiny.

posted by Molsonator on Jul 04, 2009 at 04:37:00 pm     #



If we held the Blockade to such high standards and scrutiny, The Free Press would be the only publication left.

posted by got2bfit on Jul 05, 2009 at 07:15:56 am     #



Give me a break. That weekly rag is total crap.

posted by toledolen on Jul 05, 2009 at 11:10:24 am     #



The Free Press SUCKS!!!!! The City Paper is WAYYYYYY BETTER

posted by AquaMan22 on Jul 06, 2009 at 02:13:31 pm     #