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Although I'm retired now, over the long years of my freelance career as a writer for tech companies, I wrote hundreds of blog posts, 99.99% of which were published under someone else's name. When I quoted or used data from other sources, I was always super- scrupulous about citations. 

And I've done the same over the long years of my Pink Slip blogging "career," during which I've written nearly 5,000 plagiarism-free posts. Over those long years, something may have slipped through uncited, but as a writer, I'm very conscious of not using someone else's words as my own. (I'm embarassed to admit that I haven't been as scrupulous at citing the sources for the images I use to illustrate my posts. I'm getting better at noting the sources, but historically, I've generally just grabbed something off the net assuming it was public domainish.)

Anyway, I don't have a lot of sympathy for plagiarists. 

Yes, I get that people can unintentionally slip up, that people can be careless, and that people - in the business world, in the political world, in the celebrity world - do rely on freelancers to create "their" articles, speeches, social media whatevers, and blog posts. 

So I don't know quite what to make of the CEO of Baystate Health, a large Massachusetts healthcare system, who last month "formally apologized for repeatedly using passages from other writers’ work in the weekly blog he produces for Baystate Health."

Peter Banko e-mailed employees a lengthy apology on Friday evening, the day after the Globe reported that its review of his internal blog found more than 20 posts containing passages identical or nearly identical to those in articles that appeared elsewhere. (Source: Boston Globe)

Banko began posting last June and continued through until mid-May, when he issued his Friday evening mea culpa to Baystate's employees in which he took "both ownership and accountability."

Not clear how or why the Globe got involved, but where there are 13,000 employees, a precarious financial situtation, and lay-offs, there are always disgruntled folks galore. That's the "how;" I guess the "why" is really a "why not," given the thirst for bringing down those in positions of authority. And, of course, the fact that plagiarism is pretty shitty. Not to mention stone stupid in an era when everyone can quickly google your words and figure out whether they're someone else's words.

(One of the most interesting recent plagiarism controversies occurred last year when hedge fund billionaire and Harvard grad Bill Ackman helped force out university president Claudine Gay, in part because of credible accusations against her for plagiarism. Ackman then lost his shit when his wife, a MIT celebrity professor, was credibly accused of plagiarism...And so it goes...) 

One of the weirder aspects of the Banko Affair is that the initial whisteblowing apparently occurred in January. And yet the Banko "something borrowed" posts continued through mid-May. His most recent post, one about Notre Dame's football coach Marcus Freeman, contained a section taken verbatim from a Sports Illustrated article.

Banko characterized the controversy as a “citation issue” and an “isolated incident.” Nevertheless, he wrote in bold type, “I sincerely ask for your forgiveness of my mistake.” He called it “an error in judgment.”

He wrote that his failure to credit other writers — the sources included Forbes, Sports Illustrated, NPR, ESPN, Harvard Business Review, and other websites — first generated a complaint to Baystate’s compliance hotline in January.

So, big "sincere" apology. Takes accountability. Takes ownership. Begs forgiveness. And yet, this hardly looks like an "isolated incident." (BTW, I'm a little cracked up by the sources he ripped off, as I have regularly quoted from Fobes, NPR, and HBR in both my professional and personal blogging.)

And then there's this bit:

Called “Connect,” Banko‘s blog offers observations on figures as diverse as Martin Luther King Jr., the controversial baseball player Pete Rose, and the late General Electric chief executive Jack Welch. It also dispenses lessons from business, sports and Banko‘s own life, including the importance of telling the truth.

Emphasis mine! (And btw, my post tomorrow is on "the controversial baseball player Pete Rose." Guarantee that there'll be no plagiarism involved.)

Anyway, I can't imagine what was going through Banko's head when he was pretty wantonly palming off someone else's words as his own. Maybe he thought he flew far enough beneath the radar - I mean, Baystate isn't exactly Mass General - that no one would notice. Maybe he had a secret weirdo desire to be caught so he could do this big cnfession thing. Maybe he's protecting a freelancer who screwed up big time. Maybe he's just a jerk. 

I'm the forgiving type, but there really is no excuse.

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Image Source: Viper Blog.