THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2006

Clarification (Globe)

A profile of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that appeared in last Saturday's Focus section referred to a story about the Iranian President in the current issue of The New Republic. After an investigation by The Globe and Mail, it appears that notes by the author were mistakenly inserted into the story without proper attribution. The Globe has apologized to The New Republic and regrets the error.

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Plagiarists Exposed, Then Explored

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2006

Editor's note (Citizen)

Sunday, 05 Feb 2006

Page 2

A story in yesterday's Citizen on page A1 about a Canadian artist whose portrait of Oscar Wilde inspired his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray was based on an article that appears in the current issue of The Beaver magazine. The Citizen regrets the omission of proper credit for the source of the story.

Ottawa’s link to Wilde’s masterpiece

The artist who inspired The Picture of Dorian Gray met the writer here, writes SUSAN MOHAMMAD.

Saturday, 04 February 2006

Page 1

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To his credit, in response to this item in the Spectator, Gazette editor-in-chief Andrew Phillips writes:

From the editor (Gazette)

Fri, Jul 22, 2005

As every journalist knows, a newspaper's integrity is its most important asset. We work hard every day to maintain The Gazette's credibility, and we know from experience how easily it can be damaged.

This week, we learned about an incident that undermines the integrity of The Gazette. In her column of July 13, our writer Janet Bagnall used material from a column by Nicholas Kristof that was published in the New York Times on July 3. Six paragraphs of Bagnall's column on the environmental record of Portland, Ore., were taken, with minor changes, from Kristof's column on the same subject. In her column on page A21 of today's paper, Bagnall explains how this happened and apologizes to Kristof, her colleagues and her readers.

Whatever the cause, this should not have happened. Taking other writers' work without attribution amounts to plagiarism, a serious infringement of the ethical rules that guide our work. On behalf of The Gazette, I apologize to you, our readers, for this lapse in our professional standards.

Actions have consequences. In this case, Bagnall has been formally reprimanded and her column will not appear for several weeks.

While plagiarism is serious, every case is different and must be handled according to the individual circumstances. In this case, it involves a journalist with a long and previously unblemished professional record.

More importantly, The Gazette will take steps to minimize the possibility that such an incident happens again. We will be meeting with staff members to underline the seriousness of such lapses. And we will be drawing up a more detailed and rigorous policy regarding plagiarism and how to avoid it.

--At the end of her column on terrorism, Janet Bagnall writes today:

Apology:

In my column of July 13 on the Bush administration's position on the Kyoto Protocol, "U.S. city shows benefits of going green," I used several paragraphs of text from a July 3 column by the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.

My use of the paragraphs, which listed steps taken by Portland, Ore., to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, as well as a quote from the mayor of Portland, was inadvertent.

I had printed out Kristof's column in the same text type as The Gazette's, along with other information, including notes I had made several weeks earlier based on the original source both Kristof and I consulted, a June 2005 progress report on Portland's action plan.

Writing my column, I thought I was transcribing my own notes, when in fact I transcribed his fact summary and quote.

However unintentional, an incident such as this can damage the credibility of the newspaper, of which I am mindful. I apologize to Nicholas Kristof, to my colleagues at The Gazette, and to my readers.   

WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2005

Compare:

The Gazette’s Janet Bagnall, July 13

In 1993, Portland became the first local government in the U.S. to adopt a strategy to fight climate change. The area's per-capita emissions were cut by 13 per cent between 1993 and 2004, while in the rest of the U.S., emissions continued to rise.

Portland Mayor Tom Potter said, "People have looked at it the wrong way, as a drain. Actually, it's something that attracts people." The steps the city took to reduce emissions turned out to be things that made Portland livable and therefore a desirable place to live.

To its public transit system, for instance, the city added two light rail lines and a streetcar system. It built 1,200 kilometres of bicycle paths. The number of people commuting by foot or on bicycle increased 10 per cent.

Portland offers all city employees either a $25-a-month U.S. bus pass or car-pool parking. Private businesses that provide employees subsidized parking are urged to subsidize employees who use public transit as well.

Portland also offered financial incentives and technical help to individuals or businesses in the construction of a "green building," one with built-in energy efficiencies.

Portland replaced the light bulbs in the traffic-light system with light-emitting diodes. They reduce electricity use by 80 per cent, which adds up to a savings of 2,300 tons of carbon dioxide and almost $500,000 U.S. a year.

The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, July 3:

Newly released data show that Portland, America's environmental laboratory, has achieved stunning reductions in carbon emissions. It has reduced emissions below the levels of 1990, the benchmark for the Kyoto accord, while booming economically.

What's more, officials in Portland insist that the campaign to cut emissions has entailed no significant economic price, and on the contrary has brought the city huge benefits: less tax money spent on energy, more convenient transportation, a greener city and expertise in energy efficiency that is helping local businesses win contracts worldwide.

"People have looked at it the wrong way, as a drain," said Mayor Tom Potter, who himself drives a Prius hybrid. "Actually it's something that attracts people. It's economical; it makes sense in dollars."

I've been torn about what to do about global warming. But the evidence is growing that climate change is a real threat: I was bowled over when I visited the Arctic and talked to Eskimos who described sea ice disappearing, permafrost melting and visits from robins, for which they have no word in the local language.

In the past, economic models tended to discourage aggressive action on greenhouse gases, because they indicated that the cost of curbing carbon emissions could be extraordinarily high, amounting to perhaps three percent of GNP.

That's where Portland's experience is so crucial. It confirms the suggestions of some economists that we can take initial steps against global warming without economic disruptions. Then in a decade or two, we can decide whether to proceed with other, costlier steps.

In 1993, Portland became the first local government in the United States to adopt a strategy to deal with climate change. The latest data, released a few weeks ago, show the results: Greenhouse gas emissions last year in Multnomah County, which includes Portland, dropped below the level of 1990, and per capita emissions were down 13 per cent.

This was achieved partly by a major increase in public transit, including two light-rail lines and a streetcar system. The city has also built 750 miles of bicycle paths, and the number of people commuting by foot or on bicycle has increased 10 per cent.

Portland offers all city employees either a $25-per-month bus pass or car-pool parking. Private businesses are told that if they provide employees with subsidized parking, they should also subsidize bus commutes.

The city has also offered financial incentives and technical assistance to anyone constructing a "green building" with built-in energy efficiency.

Then there are innumerable little steps, such as encouraging people to weatherize their homes. Portland also replaced the bulbs in the city's traffic lights with light-emitting diodes, which reduce electricity use by 80 per cent and save the city almost $500,000 a year.

"Portland's efforts refute the thesis that you can't make progress without huge economic harm," says Erik Sten, a city commissioner. "It actually goes all the other way: To the extent Portland has been successful, the things that we were doing that happened to reduce emissions were the things that made our city livable and hence desirable."

Sten added that Portland's officials were able to curb carbon emissions only because the steps they took were intrinsically popular and cheap, serving other purposes like reducing traffic congestion or saving on electrical costs. "I haven't seen that much willingness even among our environmentalists," he said, "to do huge masochistic things to save the planet."