An apology to Star-Ledger Yankees beat reporter Marc Carig is in order.
On Monday, I wrote:
STAR LEDGER: Marc Carig copied off Erik Boland’s paper in that he had individual stories on Gardner and Wang/Hughes, But he had a couple of other tidbits: 1) His recap was short and had additional bulletpointed notes. I thought this was an interesting format. It reminded me of an anchor calling highlights and then reading key notes off the scoreboard graphic. 2) He had a full feature on Phil Coke and his blaming the umpire’s call on the 3-2 pitch to Trevor Crowe. Check out the last paragraph. Looks like he copied off Pete Abe’s paper, too.
I realize that the above block can be construed as an accusation of plagiarism, but it is not. The “copied off his paper” lines were meant to be tongue-in-cheek, to demonstrate that there is information overlap, and in some cases, quote and word overlap, in deadline situations. The fact that Marc Carig’s stories in the Star-Ledger were similar to the ones in Newsday and the Journal News was a coincidence.
These coincidences occur daily if you follow all of the media. For example, late last week, Michael Kay interviewed Mets GM Omar Minaya on his radio show in the afternoon and asked him, in a different order, nearly the same exact questions Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason did on WFAN in the morning. Michael may or may not have listened to the FAN show, but in analysis, I could have written, “It sounded like Michael Kay ripped his questions off the morning team at WFAN. Wouldn’t that add to the WFAN-ESPN rivalry?”
To Marc, I am sorry for the loaded nature of the statements above and for any fallout or criticism it has caused you in the past few days. I know the seriousness of that accusation and wouldn’t wish it upon myself or anyone else. Moving forward, I will do a better job of reading between the lines as I proof these pieces to make sure the words I choose are the right ones.
Thank you.
Well, it serves him right. What the hell kind of name is "Carig", anyway? If he names his son "Craig" all the teachers will think the kid is dyslexic.
Seriously: Carig has a good column today on why Aceves should be the set-up man. I wasn't exactly convinced, but he brought good stuff to the table.
Here's the link.
Good job with the apology, but I wonder if the impact of such a circumstantial, and even unintended, accusation might make some sportswriters think twice about doing the very same thing to athletes when they throw around steroid aspersions?
[2] You know, William, I actually thought about that. The conclusion that I drew was that every single one of us who writes, whether for a newspaper, blog, whatever ... our audience is much bigger than we can ever comprehend, and every word, every fact, needs to be selected carefully. The reason: intent and tone are too easily misunderstood in written form. Without hearing the voice or seeing the facial expression, it's impossible to know the writer's intention.