Experiencing Plagiarism

Before Valentines Day, we read an article suggesting that married couples should find some new activities to renew their relationship. It didn’t mention the togetherness that comes from being called plagiarists.

On January 30, the Cascadia Weekly published our article, “Is Birch Bay Ready to be A City?” This alternative publication is widely read in Bellingham and Whatcom County for its coverage of politics and entertainment. This was our first local article in two years. We had submitted our first draft before Christmas and were delighted to see it finally in print, so went out for dinner to celebrate. The next day we were shocked when Pat Grubb, the editor and publisher of The Northern Light, a weekly newspaper serving the Blaine-Birch Bay communities, charged that a significant section of our article came from his paper. Tim Johnson, editor and publisher of the Cascadia Weekly, acknowledged the plagiarism in response to Pat’s complaint, but failed to mention that it was he who stole The Northern Light’s words, leaving the implication that we were the guilty party.

By way of background, in 2004 the Bellingham Weekly, with Christian Martin as features editor and Tim as executive editor, published a series of our articles. The first was about Birch Bay’s growing pains. Then we wrote cover stories on Pentecostals and Sikhs in Whatcom County. For an International Women’s Day issue, we nominated and wrote four of the seven profiles included. Later, as an “exercise”, we drafted a review of the Bruce Mau’s ‘Massive Change’ exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery and sent it to Christian for an opinion. He surprised us by running the piece the next week. We also produced a Q&A with Mark Bittner, author of The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. For all of these articles, except the Bruce Mau exhibit, we provided photos, including some cover pictures. (For the exhibit, Christian obtained the naked chicken art from the gallery that became the mascot of Carey Ross’ music pages.)

We ran into trouble with Tim shortly before the demise of the Bellingham Weekly in December of 2005. We had worked on an article about Ferndale for nearly six weeks, interviewing a former mayor, a retired banker, a leader among non-profits, an Alcoa plant manager and the president of the Old Settlers (present mayor). Prior to requesting a meeting with the then current mayor, we sent Tim and Christian a “précis” – rather than a draft – to show them where we were going. Before giving us a response, Tim attacked the mayor in his editorial ‘Skinny’ for wanting “big box” stores, effectively wiping out any possibility of us having a civil interview with the mayor. While we didn’t disagree with Tim’s opinion, we didn’t like being undermined without warning. Tim apologized for his “capriciousness” and then ridiculed our “précis.” Soon after, the Bellingham Weekly closed as the result of Tim’s fight with his publisher partner.

After Tim published his acknowledgement of the plagiarized segment in our January 30 article, we asked that he make clear that the illegal use was his failure, not ours. In response to our e-mail demanding exoneration, he answered: “There was no way to win this. Your article, frankly, was in my estimation and that of my editors incomplete and poorly written and required an almost complete overhaul….How to explain all that in a way that is not unduly insulting to you and trivial and hair-splitting?”

However, on the Friday afternoon before the article came out, he had written: “I appreciate the hard work. It is a good start. Needs a few transitions, a little more background on the community, a little more energetic storytelling, but it is good article. I will supply these edits and get at copy back to your for review.” But his version never came to us before he published.

We have since emailed and written a Letter to the Editor of the Cascadia Weekly, spelling out the responsibility for the errors in content and process, to which we have received no response.

So how do we clear our names?

First, we speak candidly about the situation. Our brief is threefold:

 1) That the draft we submitted presented a reliable – and unchallenged – understanding of the Birch Bay community’s view that it is not ready for incorporation, although a county-paid study by a consulting firm found that a city would be affordable with a “bare-bones” budget without raising taxes;

2) That our draft was not changed significantly except for the information Tim added. In rewriting, he moved our words and paragraphs around but kept most of the content;

3) That what he added

   a) plagiarized from The Northern Light and

   b) misinformed about ‘BBWARM’, a program to control storm water, saying that the levy was approved when it was not, which did more to harm the Weekly’s reputation than had he published our draft as submitted.

Second, we upped the intensity of our writing through this blog and more travel writing.

Third, we maintained our activism in the community and enjoyed positive support from many members of this community.

A surprise is that our situation seems to be newsworthy. A veteran writer, editor and university journalism teacher said he had never heard of a similar situation. Can our experience benefit other freelance writers? What are the ethics of editors making changes without letting authors see the revision? Do publishers that buy many freelance articles have guidelines on how much editors can change without requesting revisions from authors? Positive action is the best remedy and greatest assurance of togetherness.