Mark Leccese: Controversy over Doris Kearns Goodwin's appearance in Ken Burns's "Tenth Inning"
[Mark Leccese, a journalism professor at Emerson College.]
Two weeks ago, a handful of bloggers wrote scathingly about Ken Burns’ use of former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin — two prominent writers who have faced credible plagiarism and fabrication charges that you can read about here, here and here — as prominent interview subjects in Burns’ most recent documentary about baseball, “The Tenth Inning.”...
What amazes and troubles me is the response of PBS ombudsman Michael Getler, a distinguished veteran journalist who served as ombudsman for the Washington Post before taking on the ombudsman’s job at PBS....
...I do object — loudly — to the ombudsman for PBS brushing off plagiarism as a mistake we should stand ready to forgiven and forget...
Read entire article at Boston Globe
Two weeks ago, a handful of bloggers wrote scathingly about Ken Burns’ use of former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin — two prominent writers who have faced credible plagiarism and fabrication charges that you can read about here, here and here — as prominent interview subjects in Burns’ most recent documentary about baseball, “The Tenth Inning.”...
What amazes and troubles me is the response of PBS ombudsman Michael Getler, a distinguished veteran journalist who served as ombudsman for the Washington Post before taking on the ombudsman’s job at PBS....
We all, of course, make mistakes, and most of us, I think, believe in redemption and second chances....
...I do object — loudly — to the ombudsman for PBS brushing off plagiarism as a mistake we should stand ready to forgiven and forget...