Johann Hari, columnist for The Independent in Britain, was suspended for plagiarism. Photo by Tom Morris/Used under Creative Commons license

Commentary

By Joe Grimm

In a U.S. political season full of apologies by candidates, we have this one from a U.K. columnist. The Independent in Britain suspended him without pay for plagiarism and he last week rejected an offer that he return to work.

“I’m willing to take the flack for my errors myself: when you screw up, you should pay a price. But I’m not willing to see other people, who are played no part in those errors and are unimpeachably decent people, take the flack too. It’s not fair on them.”

Johann Hari posted that apology on his blog.

I don’t know Hari, but I don’t buy the apology.

In the first place, plagiarism is not an error. Getting a name wrong is an error. Getting the wrong street is a mistake. Spelling “flack” when it should be spelled “flak” is a mistake. Plagiarism is deliberate. It’s not a mistake or a goof. “Oops, excuse me, I accidentally stole your work and said it was mine. My bad.”

Hari knows this. He’s a pro who was with The Independent for nine years.

The bigger issue surfaces when Hari writes, as part of his rationale for not returning to The Independent, that he is “not willing to see … unimpeachably decent people, take the flack too. It’s not fair on them.”

Well, of course it isn’t fair. But Hari knew what would happen to his coworkers before he plagiarized.

In his blog bio, Hari notes that he writes for The New York Times. The top two editors of that newspaper “took flak.” They lost their jobs in June 2003 when Jayson Blair plagiarized.

Plagiarism hurts the institution, the people associated with it, everyone in journalism and news consumers in profound ways. Plagiarists take shortcuts to help themselves, damning the consequences for others.

Plagiarists don’t get to sucker-punch people and then say it’s wrong that this somehow happened to them.

Apology not accepted.

Joe Grimm, a consultant and adjunct faculty member of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, recruited for the Detroit Free Press, Knight Ridder and Gannett from 1990 until 2008. He now teaches at the Michigan State University School of Journalism. He has run the JobsPage journalism careers site at www.jobspage.com since 1996. Questions about careers? E-mail Joe for an answer.