AOL Patch Plagiarizes Content From L.A. Blogger Alissa Walker, No Apology

• I am a reporter in Washington state and we have had a few Patch sites open up here as well, including one that is competition to my beat. Last week I broke a story through good, old-fashioned shoe leather journalism; working sources, holding my powder and then having everything ready when it all went down. because of that i was the first to publish the story. The next day i received an email from the editor of the local Patch site asking if "in the spirit of information sharing" i could send her any city documents i had gathered for the story so she could follow-up. Really? As it was she published her story linking to and citing mine. It wasn't plagiarized, but it does raise some questions about the work Patch is doing...

• Ah, JBlair, what a blunder - I mis-typed Dennis' name, having a Greg Romero among my close acquaintances. I apologize to both Dennis and Greg. peace Ryan Gierach

• I've never seen anyone get owned so hard in their own post. /popcorn Mr. Romero, might I suggest the truth is somewhere in the middle? Patch has some damn good journalists who were hired away from newspapers. Unfortunately, Patch has some green, untrained journalists as well. I'll agree that the "gimme, gimme" attitude, as you call it, doesn't look good. It looks like that particular editor is one of the aforementioned green journalists. But you can't blame kids for taking a job and getting thrown out there with no training, and it's kind of sad to see you take such glee in chastising them while doing the exact same things you're accusing them of doing. At least they're green, so they have an excuse. What's yours? Too preoccupied with adding your exciting appearances on Nancy Grace to your vanity domain? Because, you know, Nancy Grace does great journalism and the fact that you appeared on her show makes you awesome. Now some young journalists need chastising, go get 'em tiger!

• Ryan, Who is this Greg that you mention?

• Plagiarism sucks hard, sure, and the failure of a newbie editor (and direct supervisor) to beg forgiveness sucks just as hard. Just as with any large chain, it took intervention from a much higher "super" to make the apology and take appropriate follow up action. Canyon News has lifted entire articles from my site and denied wrongdoing because they lifted THAT copy from an aggregator who failed to credit WeHo News. The aggregators are notoriously slipshod. I find here in WeHo that they whine when they don't get "credit" from a reporter for publishing something on it "first." Because so many amateurs without journalistic training and/or experience are out there recording and broadcasting events just because they can we'll be seeing much more of this - not only from Patch but from anyone with a laptop and a cell phone. As a historian, I remain cognizant that journalism is the first draft of history - and therefore subject to revision based on new information. Greg did his level best to characterize the piece in his headline; he's just one reporter doing his best to tell a tale. Like every other good reporter in the world, he writes what he knows when he knows it and makes necessary changes to the story as needed. Let us all maintain vigilance to police our partners and competitors so such crap can be held to a minimum. Ryan Gierach

• Dennis, You sir are an idiot. You should have just admitted your mistake, reflected on the irony and moved on.

• Get a grip, people.

• Get a grip, people.

• "Sad" makes a good point. The headline is no longer accurate if there has been an apology. Perhaps "No Initial Apology," if you feel that's an essential part of the story. That would be accurate. Stories - and headlines - are updated all the time when new news emerges. -Andy Schotz

• "These are wild times. Everyone with a laptop is a media critic." Including, apparently, Dennis Romero, who's spinning wildly in a web of his own snark and slipups.

• I'll explain it for the learning impaired: Headlines don't always cover the full arc of a story. They cover the highlights. In this case one of the most interesting parts of the story, and the element that forwards it from other pieces on the situation was an editor's immediate and tone deaf response -- with no apology. The headline reflects this amazing moment. I didn't write the disputed part of the headline, but I stand by it: At first Patch didn't apologize. These are wild times. Everyone with a laptop is a media critic. Dennis

• Reading the above, state of journalism is really sad. "AOL Patch Plagiarizes Content From L.A. Blogger Alissa Walker, No Apology" And yet there was an apology. If an apology was made, why aren't you changing the headline, Dennis?

• BTW, when I said the phone had already been picked up, I was referring to our print piece today about Patch.

• Alissa: Thanks for your patience with this. I think we made clear here, via the photo, that Patch later apologized. I think the initial response, however, is what makes this a story today, especially because LA Observed already had something up on this episode. I didn't write that part of the headline, BTW. This fell into my lap. I was told to do it -- on a day when other things were breaking. I did it. I stand by it. It would be great if someone at Patch (or maybe SyFy, that bastion of journalistic integrity) had the fortitude to go on the record about this particular episode. Oh well. -Dennis

• in the future you may refer to us as a single entity with the moniker "Marlissa Glawker."

• Actually, no one ever picked up a phone. I sent an email to Tibby Rothman, the author of the LA Weekly story about Patch, after it was published, telling her what happened to me. I was never asked any questions about it. I'd also like to point out that in my email to Tibby, I noted that Patch's regional editor Patrick Lee did send me an apology with a series of bullet points on what Patch was doing to fix the problem in the future. They also posted the retraction on their own blog. Both of those things seem like an apology to me. I don't think anyone is questioning your journalistic integrity based on this one incident, Dennis, but to be clear, that's exactly what you're questioning about Patch, based on one incident. Although it's understandable: Alissa and Marissa do sound a lot alike!

• And for the record, in 15 posts or so a day, often more, at the Informer, we do a lot of reporting, and pick up a lot of phone, unlike at Patch. Again, in this case I felt no need to step on the toes of folks who had already reported the hell out of Patch.

• Marissa: I wasn't referring to you. This was somewhat of a follow up to a story that already had been (well) reported at the Weekly. I found no need to pick up the phone and go over another reporter's work when the phone had already been picked up. -Dennis

• Dennis - no where in my comment nor in my correspondence with you have I "questioned your integrity" as a journalist. We all make mistakes - I know I've made plenty. So I'm not quite sure where this vitriol comes from. Nor have you ever suggested to me previously that I come by your office to talk. In the meantime, the original tweet to your 33,000+ followers with the mistaken headline remains with my name attached to it (and the feed is adjacent to the story). I'd like it deleted please. And if the story is based on an email, perhaps it would be wise to follow your own advice: "...someone can't pick up a phone and do some original reporting? The episode, Walker says, inspired Patch to take a look at its guidelines. You know, stuff like don't rip off other people's blogs and make some calls once in a while." Thanks for your continued effort to correct this.

• Fixed. Sorry for the error. As I've explained to others, I received an internal email on the matter from reliable staff members here and I misread the source of the original blog. I stand by everything else here, however. As is clear in the post, the original response from Patch did not contain an apology (it's right here in black-and-white), but clearly they latter back peddled. Anyone who wants to question my integrity as a journalist based on this one incident probably is having a bad day and needs to have their head checked. But as I've suggested, they can always come by our office and talk about it. -Dennis

• I believe you mean Alissa Walker, not Marissa Gluck. I've never spoken to anyone from the LA Weekly, nor has Patch ever plagiarized anything I've ever written. Please correct this story immediately and we'll try to forget the irony of a story on sloppy reporting consistently getting the name of a blogger wrong. Thanks!

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