A note to our readers
To our readers:
We recently were alerted to a story published April 20 that we have concluded violated our ethics policy. After a review, we determined that our story about the U.S. Department of the Interior effort to remove the word squaw from place names was similar in structure and language to a story published 10 days earlier by The Spokesman-Review in Spokane.
As a result, we have apologized to The Spokesman-Review and attached a note about the ethics violation to the story on our website.
Following the initial allegation, we conducted a review of a sample set of stories written by reporter John Sowell, primarily over the last two years. That review revealed several other stories with unattributed language or structure that was remarkably similar to passages that appeared in other outlets. We have added editor’s notes to those stories crediting the original publications.
Sowell has resigned from the Idaho Statesman.
Our ethics policy has a clear message on plagiarism:
“We do not use someone else’s work without proper attribution. Period.
“Plagiarism exists in many forms, including wholesale lifting of someone else’s writing, publishing a news release without attribution, or structuring a piece too closely to someone else’s. Even if your work isn’t verbatim from another source, the structure should not duplicate it either.”
We strive every day to hold leaders accountable. We must do the same for ourselves when we fail to meet our readers’ — and our own — expectations. For this breakdown, we apologize to our readers and the authors of the original works.
The other stories that we concluded were in violation of our ethics policy are listed here (if you know of any additional instances, please email ccripe@idahostatesman.com so we can address them):
Remember empty toilet-paper shelves? They’re back in Boise as virus hoarding resumes
Idaho companies join ad boycott against Facebook over hate-filled posts and misinformation
Albertsons gave you a free COVID-19 shot. How much did the Boise grocer profit from it?
This Boise tech company could be up for sale as its owners explore options, report says
Idaho ticket holders lost thousands to Seattle ticket vendor. Help may be on the way
Chadd Cripe
Editor
