Final Word from Thursday, October 16, 2003
Competition among news organizations, advisory firms and professional organizations is fierce, and they sometimes fight over who should get credit for a scoop, a good idea or an advocacy victory in Parliament. Often, those who had nothing whatsoever to do with bringing an issue to light are the very ones who end up getting the most credit for it. It's quicker and easier to steal an idea than it is to create one, and some organizations therefore devote more effort to idea theft than to idea origination. In a fair world, these plagiarists would eventually get their comeuppance. The CR still has a ways to go, though, and showing professional courtesy is often seen here as a weakness, not a virtue. The Final Word always tries to cite its news sources, even if some of these same sources borrow liberally from us without giving us credit. Perhaps this is our weakness, but we still think it's the right thing to do. plagiarism