Oregon Media Insiders

Give us ten minutes...

It's weird: I had the pleasure of meeting Ben at the Mercury's AAN shindig last weekend, and he seemed like a nice enough guy. At the very least, he didn't seem like the sort of guy to toss out a half-hearted plagiarism accusation.

Looking at both reviews, yeah, I can see his point--but I also think the similarities are due to the fact that Ben and Alison are reviewing the same play, and having similar issues with similar problems within that play. This is about both of them pointing out the play's weaknesses, and agreeing on them--it's not about Alison getting all klepto with stuff from, of all places, the Willamette Week. After all, both she and Ben have been writing about theater for a while; one would think if Alison was a plagiarist, she'd have proven herself to be one before. Except she isn't, she hasn't, and she didn't here.

Another weird thing: If Ben genuinely feels Alison stole his review--and that is what he's dancing around, but not coming out and saying--he should have nutted up and just outright accused her of plagiarism. But instead, he offers a vague, cutesy semi-accusation with that condescending tone that his writing sometimes takes on. And he does it in a public forum, no less. Which makes me think he knows he's full of shit, but he also knows this is as good of a way to get attention as any.

I don't know, Erik! I went over both pieces with my fine tooth comb, and found several outright identical phrases.

Such as:

"In 1925"

"Floyd Collins" (they both italicized it, too!)

"is a play"

"Stumptown Stages' production"

"Artists' Repertory Theater's John Kretzu"

I'm SHOCKED.

-AJR

If Ben genuinely feels that I stole his review--and that is what he's dancing around, but not coming out and saying--he should had nutted up and just outright accused me of plagiarism. But instead, he offers a vague, cutesy semi-accusation with that condescending tone that his writing sometimes takes on. And he does it in a public forum, no less. Which makes ME think he knows he's full of shit, but he also knows this is as good of a way to get attention as any.

Just run both articles through a plagiarism checking program (such as doccop or copyscape) and see what the results are.

These types of programs are used in academia and in professional writing to determine plagiarism in papers, websites, and in articles.

Both plagiarism programs showed ZERO, nada, nothing, no plagiarism at all. Not even a small percentage.

Ben, you are acting like an ass. Willamette Week you are idiots for backing Ben on this and my respect for your paper is shot if you continue to do so. Finally, Ben - I think you owe Alison and the Mercury an apology. Willamette Week – get it together.

My old soccer coach used to tell me that there was "nothing new under the sun. Everything you do has been done before, and everything said has been said before."

He was an amazing soccer coach, but didn't seem to be impressed by my killer saves when I was playing goalie :-(

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DISCLAIMER: my opinions are my own, not those of OMI or any employer.

Let's face it: WW is on its last legs. Reduced to this kind of flimsy complaint.....

Ben didn't accuse Alison of stealing, he accused her of not doing her homework. The Mercury on the other hand steals ideas form freelance writers and gives the ideas to their staff writers. That is theft. The Mercury is waaaaay more unethical than the WW. The Mercury also spends all day taunting not only the WW but the rest of Portland. They got a little back and started crying like school girls.
Thicken your skin Merc, don't cry when you get a little of your own medicine.