19 December 2007
It's not a Pulitzer, but it's something (cont'd)
Regret the Error, a blog that keeps track of media errors and corrections, has done its year-end list of best media oopses, and has awarded the Chronicle Typo of the Year:
The Houston Chronicle, like just about every other North American media outlet, spent a lot of time reporting on Anna Nicole Smith this past year. In attempting to explain her, um, humble origins, the paper gave itself a measure of comeuppance. And that’s what makes it the typo of the year.
A photo caption in the paper read:
“When Redding, a longtime scout for Playboy, discovered Smith, the model could barely right a sentence…”
Who’s illiterate now?
We're so proud.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/19/07 05:00 AM |
18 December 2007
The return of the Froot Loops Bureau!
Cory Crow alerts us to this dispatch from the Chronicle's Kevin Moran, who apparently is manning the Froot Loops Desk (or should that be the Froot Loops Breakfast Nook?) this morning:
Inbound commuters should avoid the North Freeway this morning after a pickup truck caught fire near Interstate 10.
The fire was confirmed at 6:09 a.m. and traffic remained mired in the area after 7 a.m., according to Houston TranStar. Televised reports showed the pickup engulfed in flames and an attached trailer destroyed. Firefighters arrived at about 6:23 a.m. and quickly doused the blaze. Fire crews did not clear the scene until 7:35, according to TranStar.
Those televised reports go well with breakfast!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/18/07 08:35 AM |
Is Harris County ready for Bill White Jr. as judge?
Friend of Bill David Mincberg hopes so:
Democrat David Mincberg called for ethics reforms in county government and a focus on environmental quality Monday as he filed papers to run for Harris County judge.
Mincberg, former chairman of the county Democratic Party, expects no significant opposition in the March primary for the job of Harris County government chief. County Judge Ed Emmett, appointed to the position this year after the resignation of Robert Eckels, faces former District Clerk Charles Bacarisse in the Republican primary.
"The public has lost confidence in Harris County's leadership, which is out of touch, indebted to big donors who 'pay to play' for county contracts and raises taxes via appraisals while pretending to cut tax rates," Mincberg said. "There is no focus on the critical issues of growth, jobs and quality of life."
Harris County residents have not lost confidence in Harris County's leadership. On the contrary, when a government focuses "on the critical issues of growth, jobs and quality of life," that's when the problems start. When government stays out of those critical issues, people and businesses thrive.
On his website Mincberg says, "The office of County Judge requires a person with great understanding of and experience in financial management and a leader with the skills necessary to implement the number of reforms and improvement so vital to Harris County's future success." Any Democrat advocating "reforms and improvement" means government heavy-handedness and regulation. We can look at Bill White's leadership in Houston as the example.
Mincberg says he wants to focus on ethics reforms, but interestingly, nowhere in the Chronicle's story does Alan Bernstein mention Mincberg's time as head of Houston's Department of Housing and Community Development, the Housing Authority of the City of Houston, and the Houston Housing Finance Corp. And on Mincberg's website, it is only briefly mentioned.
The best remedies for any ethics issues are transparency and a watchdog media. Everything possible should be made available online, and local media should thoroughly cover all local issues. When has the Chronicle ever covered Harris County politics, except in the most superficial manner? It took KTRK-13's Wayne Dolcefino to unearth Jerry Eversole's problems. And the Chronicle's Houston coverage isn't overly aggressive -- Mrs. White won't allow that.
So let's unearth details of Mincberg's tenure as the $1 per-year head of Houston's Housing Authorities. Let's see how this businessman runs things. We've heard there might some interesting tidbits if a full accounting emerged.
And if Mincberg really wants to run on a platform of ethics reform, let's find out where this Houston insider stood on the city's Yellow Cab contract, including the airport shuttle disaster that put a local company out of business; and on a long-term, no-bid airport concession contract. Give us the quotes where he came out against "big donors who 'pay to play'" for city business.
We certainly won't see that in Houston's Daily Information Source, because Mincberg's wife works for the Chronicle. We can expect nothing but glowing reviews for the Democrat candidate for Harris County Judge.
The critical issues for Harris County are public safety and public infrastructure -- roads and flooding. We don't need Bill White-lite micromanaging county residents' lives. You can bet Mayor White has already been whispering "county-wide smoking ban" in Mincberg's ear. If I recall correctly, Houston complained to the county that its lack of a smoking ban was harming Houston businesses, since smokers could go to restaurants and bars outside city limits. And just think of all the new red-light camera opportunities outside MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's reach.
Most likely Mincberg will aim to keep a low profile for now, counting on a bruising battle between Judge Emmett and Charles Bacarrise. Then with the Chronicle on his side, FOB Mincberg can run as an above-the-fray candidate, spouting soothing platitudes of "change."
In the big picture, Harris County is running just fine, as local governments go. Mincberg's idea of change will translate into regulation and stealth-taxes, à la Bill White.
CORRECTION: We are informed that David Mincberg's wife, Lainie Gordon, no longer works for the Chronicle.
ANNE ADDS: Excellent! Now there's no reason for the Chronicle not to dive into Mincberg's record as head of Houston's housing authorities.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/18/07 08:22 AM |
17 December 2007
KHOU reports one strange Eastex Freeway tale
KHOU-11 posts what can only be described as an odd story:
Valencia Lee and Latesta Onyenike were Northbound at Crosstimbers on Highway 59 when a motorcycle officer, who was supposedly escorting a funeral procession, waved them over.
Lee says he told her, “‘You on the cell phone and I'm directing traffic,’ that's all he said,” Lee, added the officer ordered her to keep her car where it was. The women said the man, who was wearing a black jacket with the word “Sheriff” on the back, then asked for the car keys.
Lee said she handed the keys over because she was afraid if she didn’t, she would wind up in jail.
But after getting her keys, the escort officer just took off, leaving Lee and Onyenike stranded on the right shoulder of the freeway.
Three hours later, a Safe-Clear Wrecker took the women and their car to a safer location off the freeway.
Then Lee called the Sheriff's Office, which dispatched a deputy and who had her towed to her apartment.
[snip]
The Harris County Sheriff's Office is trying to determine what happened and if a legitimate peace [sic] officer was involved. They are not sure if he is truly a deputy with the sheriff’s office or some other agency.
If everything happened as described, that is one strange story (including the three-hour SAFEclear response time).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/17/07 11:21 PM |
Are government failures contributing to support for Horn?
Over the weekend, the Chronicle's Mike Snyder posted an interesting, balanced look at reactions to the Joe Horn case. Here is an excerpt:
He had the thief in his sights, but chose not to take the shot. More than a decade later, Bill Thomas of Kemah still agonizes over that decision.
"That night still lives in my mind like it was yesterday," Thomas said, recalling the evening when he confronted a man he saw breaking into a van in the parking lot of a San Antonio motel.
Like Joe Horn of Pasadena, who some consider a hero for fatally shooting two men who broke into his neighbor's house Nov. 14, Thomas was defending someone else's property. Horn pulled the trigger of his shotgun three times; Thomas lowered his weapon, only to learn later that the thief he allowed to flee into the night may have gone on to rob a convenience store and kill a clerk.
Like many others who have publicly expressed support for Horn's actions, Thomas is frustrated. Frustrated because police, he says, have all but shrugged off burglaries of his home and his truck. Frustrated because the nation's porous borders make it possible for illegal immigrants such as the men Horn shot to prey on hard-working Americans.
This sense that private citizens must step in to do the job they believe their government is failing to do is a key factor driving the surge of public support for Horn, according to interviews with academic experts and a review of hundreds of comments on news articles, letters to the editor and radio talk-show conversations.
The rest of the story is here.
Various media outlets have reported that the Pasadena Police Department presented its findings in the case to the Harris County District Attorney's office today.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/17/07 10:21 PM |
16 December 2007
Confusion over Power to Choose website
Earlier in the week, KPRC-2's Amy Davis reported that the fine engine used to search for electricity providers had been pulled from the state's Power To Choose website:
When Local 2 Investigates checked out the Web site, we noticed the site was not only more difficult to navigate, but some posted rates for electricity are flat out wrong.
The posted rate for Spark Energy is 9.8 cents on the "Power to Choose." At Spark Energy's Web site, the rate is 10.8 cents.
Out of 50 rates we checked at random, we found 11, 22 percent, incorrect.
"Now what's happening is they're even making it harder for us to find the cheapest price," said Cobarruvias.
When we tried clicking on the link for Green Mountain Energy, we were actually sent to Hudson Energy's Web site. We clicked on StarTex Power and we ended up at Green Mountain.
"Our enrollments have gone down close to 40 percent," said Marcie Zlotnik, the owner of StarTex Power.
The only thing that Zlotnik said has changed in that time period is the "Power To Choose" Web site. She said the biggest change is that consumers can no longer search for providers by typing in their ZIP code. The site now wants to know a consumers' Transmission and Delivery Service Provider or TDSP.
"ZIP code is easy," said Zlotnik. "Everybody knows their ZIP code. TDSP, they first have to understand what does that mean and second of all, who is it?"
In Houston, by the way, the TDSP is CenterPoint Energy. But the average consumer does not know that.
By phone, PUC Commissioner Barry Smitherman said the Commission decided to cancel the contract with the vendor who maintained the Web site when it discovered the vendor giving some electric providers an unfair advantage over others.
But Cobarruvias said that excuse doesn’t work with him.
"You don't wake up in the morning and find out that your contract ended. You know this in advance," he said.
"We just want the site back up the way that it was," said Zlotnik.
Local 2 Investigates called the PUC late last week about the problems we discovered in its Web site. About an hour and a half before our broadcast, a PUC spokesperson called us and said the PUC was able to add the ZIP code search to the site again.
Smitherman told us other changes to the site are coming in the next few weeks. The state Legislature gives the PUC $750,000 tax dollars a year to use for consumer education.
Later, the Chronicle's Tom Fowler and Loren Steffy posted a story with an error that has yet to be corrected:
Marcie Zlotnik, president of Houston-based electric retailer StarTex Power, said her company's business has fallen by 70 percent this month, which she attributes to the changes in the Web site.
"The Power to Choose Web site is embedded in everything we do in this market," Zlotnik said. "I can think of no more valuable tool that we have to educate and encourage people to switch."
In the comments section of the story, a spokesperson for StarTex power posts a correction:
We read with interest the article authored by Mr. Tom Fowler and Loren Steffy, Consumer Web site loses juice.
The article highlighted the issues facing the market due to the changes made to the Power To Choose website. As stated in the article, this website has been instrumental in assisting consumers with their decision to choose a new electricity provider.
We wish to clarify a point made in the article that is unclear as stated.
The article states that "Marcie Zlotnik, president of Houston-based electric retailer StarTex Power, said her company's business has fallen by 70 percent this month, which she attributes to the changes in the Web site."
Our business has not fallen by 70 percent this month. This should have stated that we have experienced a 70 percent decline in the number of new customers choosing StarTex Power through the Power to Choose website so far in the month of December.
Respectfully submitted,
Steve Madden
StarTex Power
Sr. VP, Supply
Apparently, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists didn't pay attention to the comment, because they repeated the error in their typically muddled editorial on the topic today:
The change may already be hampering some consumers in their quest to sign up for new electric service. Marcie Zlotnik, president of Houston-based electric retailer StarTex Power, said her company's business has fallen by 70 percent this month, which she attributes to the changes in the Web site.
As the spokesperson pointed out, that's not quite right.
Further, as local blogger John Cobarruvias (who was cited in the KPRC-2 story) notes, something doesn't quite add up with the PUC's explanation of the changes to the website, which in its previous configuration was highly useful and merely provided links to individual power providers. In addition, the Editorial LiveJournalists seem somewhat confused as to how the website worked in its previous configuration. That's hardly surprising, as we suspect the Editorial LiveJournalists probably never used it to shop for electric providers. (Our request for reader rep Steve Jetton to answer this question by polling the Editorial Board members on their current choice of electric provider seems likely to be ignored -- he and the Editorial LiveJournalists are very busy after all).
The City of Houston maintains a similar electric provider website. While it is less useful than the state's original site, it does seem better than the state's current effort.
UPDATE (12-18-2007): The Chronicle posts a correction today:
Houston-based electric retailer StarTex Power has seen a 70 percent drop this month in the number of new customers referred from the state-sponsored Power to Choose Web site. A story on Page D1 Friday was not clear about how StarTex business was affected by changes in the Web site.
Note that the correction does not reference the editorial that made the same error. It is not clear why the newspaper is so reluctant to correct errors on the editorial page.
BLOGVERSATION: NewsWatch: Energy.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/16/07 06:38 PM |
KPRC: Limited access to critical technology hampers HPD
Last week, KPRC-2's Stephen Dean uncovered more problems within HPD with this story on the police department's failure to provide most homicide investigators with access to computer programs and databases which are critical in the first hours of an investigation:
The officers told KPRC Local 2 Investigates that they are routinely locked out of three of the most fundamental crime-fighting computer systems they need to track down killers and kidnappers. They said access to those programs has only been granted to a handful of homicide squad employees and those people are often off-duty or unavailable when seconds count.
Smaller departments often access these basic programs from most investigators' desktop computers, but HPD homicide investigators said they have been required to wait in line for crime analysts, employees who are not officers, to handle the duties for them because of department policy.
"Small cities, small departments don't have those obstacles," Wiseman said. "The fourth-largest city in the country does; it's no wonder we have problems."
Wiseman said there is "a problem in management."
That's a HUGE understatement.
HPD has limited access to its computer link with the Texas Department of Public Safety, which can allow officers instant access to driver's license photographs of suspects. HPD acknowledged it only allowed 11 employees access to those photos, even though DPS officials told KPRC it would cost nothing to add access for every single detective.
But that's not all:
The second issue involves police computer searches known as "skip tracing." The department admitted it only had seven employees with access to those programs from the homicide squad.
Skip tracing pinpoints addresses, relatives, registered automobiles and other information about potential suspects. HPD officers told KPRC Local 2 Investigates they would sometimes have to wait for others to access those databases during kidnapping investigations.
The third technology hang-up involves accessing crime reports from the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Officers said they could not access routine crime reports or crime analysis from that neighboring jurisdiction, even though sheriff's office employees can access that data from HPD.
[snip]
Just like the DPS driver's license photos, a linkup to the Harris County sheriff's office computer would cost nothing, according to city and county officials.
Dirden insisted, "That may be the case, but it's not an issue that has jeopardized public safety."
The homicide squad chief is fairly new in his command and admitted he learned about some of these technology hang-ups from KPRC Local 2 Investigates.
It is inexcusable that HPD's homicide investigators do not have every possible resource available to them in the course of an investigation. The incompetence of HPD's leadership is just mind-boggling, especially as we add this to Mark Greenblatt's reporting on how HPD flat out misreports homicide numbers.
A pattern is clearly emerging of a police chief who is much more interested in surveilling Houstonians, rather than doing what it takes to keep Houstonians safe (not to mention, alive!), and of a mayor who tacitly approves of said police chief.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/16/07 05:56 PM |
14 December 2007
KHOU's Neil Frank to retire in 2008
Last week, Mike McGuff informed that former KTRK-13 meteorologist Gene Norman appeared to be headed back to Houston for a top job.
Today, the Chronicle's David Barron confirms that Norman has been tapped as the replacement for none other than a retiring Neil Frank on KHOU-11:
Neil Frank, KHOU's (Channel 11) chief meteorologist since 1987 and the former director of the National Hurricane Center, will retire from the station in 2008 and will be succeeded by former KTRK (Channel 13) meteorologist Gene Norman, Channel 11 officials said this afternoon.
Norman, who recently resigned as chief meteorologist at WGCL in Atlanta, that city's CBS affiliate, will join Channel 11 on Jan. 28, president and general manager Susan McEldoon said.
"Gene is being hired to eventually replace Doc (Frank), who will be retiring later in 2008," McEldoon said. "We don't have a specific date yet, but we want this overlapping time so there can be a smooth transition."
Norman, a former NASA scientist who worked at Channel 13 in the middle to late 1990s before going to Atlanta in 2000, has won four local Emmys and three awards from the Associated Press broadcasters for his weather coverage in Georgia.
Frank, who came to Channel 11 in 1987 from the hurricane center in Miami, will be remembered for ushering in a new era for Houston TV forecasters, said Ann Hodges, the retired longtime television critic for the Chronicle.
"He had such a high profile from his job in Florida, and he was the authority on hurricanes, so goodness knows there was no better place for him to be," Hodges said. "After he arrived, you never again saw weathermen coming out in funny costumes and dong [sic] silly things as they used to do. They had to have credentials. So he changed things in Houston for the better."
Will Neil Frank stick around for one more hurricane season? If not, who will inspire Ken Hoffman's meteorologist commentary?
BLOGVERSATION: Mike McGuff, TBIFOC, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/07 11:40 AM |
13 December 2007
Texans fan makes political statement on NFL Network
Houston Texans receiver Andre Johnson caught a fourth quarter touchdown pass, and ran to the fans in the end zone to celebrate.
One fan was prepared to make a political statement, as the following screenshot reveals:
Houstonians can be pretty funny.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/07 09:53 PM |
Chron metro columnists report on Alice puppy, obsess over Joe Horn
Yesterday, Chronicle metro columnist Rick Casey posted what was basically a rewrite of various stories from the Alice (TX) Echo News Journal on an odd fight over a puppy. Now, Casey did credit the Echo News Journal, which is an improvement over his past plagiarizing of other newspapers. But it's not entirely clear why the Chronicle employs an alleged hotshot metro columnist to rewrite stories from small Texas newspapers (instead of shaking up things locally).
On the other hand, metro columnist Lisa Falkenberg has certainly gone local, at least regarding the Joe Horn matter (we have not yet been treated to her father's opinion on the matter, which would be extra-local, but we digress). Of course, with three (of her last four) columns on the Joe Horn matter, she quite possibly has moved from appropriately local to obsessive. That seems to be the opinion of our friends at Lose an Eye, It's a Sport and Chelsea Hotel Number Two, and we're inclined to agree.
Surely there are more compelling stories in the metro area.
Anyway, we've not really discussed the Joe Horn affair, so feel free to offer your thoughts on the matter in the forum if you're so inclined. Or Rick Casey, puppies, and Alice, TX, if you prefer. Consider it an open-comments invitation on those two topics!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/07 09:46 PM |
Stiles: Councilmembers preparing for Controller run?
In two interesting blog posts today, the Chronicle's Matt Stiles speculates that certain councilmembers may have begun positioning themselves for a possible City Controller run.
Wouldn't it be nice if these so-called public servants, instead of "positioning" themselves for future political offices, concentrated on doing the best job possible in their current jobs, for their constituents and for the City of Houston?
There I go, being naïve. Sorry.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/07 09:10 PM |
Question about the "Baby Grace" murder case
Commenter Filio Scotia asked if we would post this query:
[T]the Riley Ann Sawyers "Baby Grace" murder case has ended up in Galveston, where a grand jury has indicted the little girl's mother and stepfather on capital murder charges.
Excuse me, but didn't this crime happen in Harris County? This "alleged" murder was committed in the suburb of Spring, in north Harris County. According to my understanding of such matters, that makes it a Harris County case, under the jurisdiction of the Harris District Courts.
It doesn't matter where the body was disposed of and found. Unless the law has been changed, it's where the crime was committed and the complainant died that determines jurisdiction for prosecution.
Anybody care to tackle this one?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/07 08:59 PM |
HouStoned interviews Proletariat owner
HouStoned Rocks posts a followup interview with Denise Ramos, who is shutting down her business (The Proletariat) to make way for METRO's Westpark Richmond rail line.
It's an interesting read.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/07 08:52 PM |
Alvarado: new ordinance will make no difference, but who cares?
Councilwoman Carol Alvarado today led City Council in addressing an issue of critical importance to Houstonians: taxi cab emissions (via KHOU-11):
[...]city leaders want new taxi cabs to be more eco friendly.
“We understand that’s not going to take care of our clean air problems, but we all have to do our part,” said Councilmember Carol Alvarado.
Under a proposed taxi cab ordinance, staring next year cab drivers applying for a new permit must drive either a hybrid or a four cylinder cab.
Cab drivers stood in unison as they voiced their opposition.
Their united opposition was to no avail. Today Council passed the ordinance with a "grandfather" provision for current cab drivers.
The whole thing is reminiscent of this: An unserious City Council tackling unserious issues.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/13/07 06:10 PM |
12 December 2007
Chron: Fountain hit with detergent or "other soap stuff"
The Chronicle's Kevin Moran reports that Mecom Fountain got soaped earlier:
People driving by the historic Mecom Fountain might have mistaken it for a bubble machine this morning because someone dumped detergent or some other soap stuff in the water overnight.
The fountain was expected to be shut down and checked for possible soap containers, then restarted after city workers treat the water with an anti-foaming agent, said Estella Espinosa, spokeswoman for the Houston Parks and Recreation department.
Whatever was added to the water is not expected to harm the fountain, located at the intersection of Main and Montrose, Espinosa said.
Dumping "some other soap stuff" in the fountain is at least less harmful than ripping out all the lights and copper wiring.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/07 10:51 PM |
MLK parade decision comes down to coin flip
KPRC-2 reports that the battle of the competing MLK Day parades has seemingly been decided, at least for 2008:
A flip of a coin determined which of two competing groups will get to hold their Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in downtown Houston in 2008, KPRC Local 2 reported.
The Black Heritage Society and MLK Parade Foundation both applied for a permit to hold their parade at 10 a.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A city rule forbids more than one parade from being held in downtown Houston per day.
Representatives from both groups met at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon. The Black Heritage Society picked heads and won.
"We won't go away, not as long as I'm alive," said Ovide Duncantell with the Black Heritage Society. "I've got about 25, 30, maybe 50 more years."
Charles Stamps with the MLK Parade Foundation said he will file for a permit for his group's parade to still go on at 10 a.m.
"Actually, there are no losers," Stamps said. "There's still going to be two parades. The city ordinance allows for four parades; we only applied for one of them.
Laurence Simon has the best proposal we've seen for resolving this annual fight. Or at least making it more entertaining.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/07 10:39 PM |
Management districts take on graffiti abatement
The Chronicle's Seshadri Kumar reports that management districts are taking on a bigger role in graffiti abatement:
Gangs and graffiti have a new adversary to reckon with — management districts.
As part of their mission to enhance safety, mobility and the business environment, Houston area management districts have taken a more aggressive role — and are spending more money — to combat graffiti with abatement programs.
Last year, the Brays Oaks Management District contracted with the Greater East End Management District's graffiti abatement program to eliminate tagging within its boundaries.
The Greater Sharpstown Management District has followed suit, signing a three-month contract with the Greater East End District's graffiti abatement program to inspect its southwest Houston area two days a week, identify graffiti and remove it October through December.
Graffiti was removed from 221 public, business and private properties in October and 121 sites in November, said Steve Pittman, communications director for the Sharpstown district.
Graffiti hasn't seemed like much of a priority to MayorWhiteChiefHurtt, so it's good (we suppose) that some quasi-governmental bodies are trying to pick up the slack.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/07 10:23 PM |
11 December 2007
Owner to shutter Proletariat in anticipation of METROrail
HouStoned Rocks reports that the owner of a Richmond music bar is shuttering the place in anticipation of the coming light rail fun:
Proletariat owner Denise Ramos emailed the Press this morning with a statement that she is closing the popular local venue in February due to Metro’s plans to build a light-rail line on Richmond Avenue, which the local transportation agency has said will be completed by 2012. “I truly feel that this whole light-rail issue is going to get very messy, and I have no interest in spending any of my energy or my staff’s time in dealing with that,” says Ramos, who plans to close the club February 3.
Obviously, Denise Ramos does not read the Chronicle or METRO's blog, or she would have seen the multiple press releases stories describing how METRO's new construction "storefronts" will mitigate any such problems!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/11/07 11:59 PM |
Update on missing minister and a previous post
I recall a previous post that talked about the case of the missing minister whose car was found by Deputy Constables. The deputies arrested one of the occupants while releasing the other. I recall this post roasted the police over the coals. I recall this post was ready to crucify the officers involved without knowing the real facts of the story. What the poster didn't know (and police did) was that this minister has a history of drug and prostitution arrests. This minister was meeting a prostitute who set him up to be robbed and his car taken. The man the deputies arrested was one of the robbers. The passenger that was released, turns out, had nothing to do with the original robbery! So it looks as if the police did a good job in solving this one. I hope all the second-guessing readers out there will read the news coverage here, and here.
Posted by Jason @ 12/11/07 11:48 PM |
Spivak: Chron reporter borrows without attribution (updated)
HouStoned's Todd Spivak noticed something interesting in Todd Ackerman's story about salt and nutrition in today's Chronicle:
Here is reporter Todd Ackerman putting salt into context:
“Suspicions about salt are not new. In 2,500 B.C., physicians in China warned patients that if they used too much, their ‘pulse’ would harden. Today, doctors say…”
For grins, I punched “salt 2500 bc china” into Google. A bunch of stuff came up, including the reporter’s source. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1997 ran a story in its FDA Consumer magazine that reads as follows:
“Scientists’ suspicions about salt are not new. As Jeffrey Cutler, M.D., director of the Clinical Applications and Prevention Program, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, points out, physicians in China back in 2,500 B.C. warned patients that if they used too much salt in their food, their ‘pulse’ would harden.”
The language in the FDA report – which is not cited in the Chronicle story – is almost identical to Ackerman’s. I’m no expert, but I don’t think that’s plagiarism. Just lazy journalism.
It seems fairly clear that Ackerman "borrowed" parts of Alexandra Greeley's writing (which was in an article in an FDA magazine, not an FDA report) without attribution. Whether you want to call it plagiarism is up to you.
UPDATE: Matt Bramanti finds additional instances of apparent "borrowing" without attribution.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, She Eats, Lone Star Times.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/11/07 11:37 PM |
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