July 15, 2010 07:42 PM UTC

Poor Journalism from the Newspaper in Denver

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• by: TCU2011

In the middle of the storm an interesting development has surfaced that many people are not talking about.  The newspaper that serves the greater Denver area has continued to fuel the storm now by printing lies and putting forth more claims of plagiarism that are completely false.  They claimed that Scott had plagiarized from the Washington post.  This could not be farther from the truth.  Below is an email from the author of the alleged plagiarized material.

Dear Mr. Hubbard,

I write to you with respect to your July 14 article and the related editorial which make reference to my past writings and your untrue allegations that gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis may have plagiarized my work.

First, I note that no one from the Denver Post contacted me prior to publishing these scurrilous claims.  So, I express to you my outrage that your newspaper would publish such claims and information about me without contacting me in advance.  It seems to me highly discourteous and unethical for a news organization to practice such shabby journalism.

Next, let me wholly and unequivocally dispel your untrue suggestions that my works may have been plagiarized.  If your colleagues had bothered to follow basic professional journalistic ethics by contacting me,  I would have set the story straight.

In short, during the 1994-1995 period in question, I was actively communicating with various US Congressional offices in my capacity as an Asian affairs analyst at a major Washington, DC non-profit think tank.  I got to know Rep. McInnis and key members of his staff at that time, and I found that I generally agreed with the Congressman’s views on US-Korea relations.

Your paper’s article takes aim at a 1994 op-ed article and a 1995 House Floor speech by Rep. McInnis.  The Congressman’s staff invited my input into both of those written works, and I was pleased to contribute to them in the editorial process.  So while some of the words there indeed are mine, they surely are not “plagiarized”.  I was very pleased and proud to have advised and assisted Congressman McInnis on those two straight-forward policy analyses.

With record now set straight for you, I trust you can understand my dismay over this outrageous travesty by your newspaper.  I will look forward to hearing about and seeing what steps you might take to correct the record.

Sincerely,

Daryl M. Plunk

The newspaper in Denver clearly overstepped its bounds and got caught up in attempting to smear a candidate that they did not do their research into the subject matter.  This is poor journalism at best and the fact that they have not owned up to this unbelievably rash story is really disheartening.  The fact that they are so quick to smear a candidate and not get all their facts is unimaginable especially given the allegations that they are presenting.  As for this allegation, the Denver newspaper has smeared an innocent man and should be ashamed of the poor journalistic quality of the article and also should realize that this mistake lessens the credibility of previous and future stories they put forward on this issue.  

I am grateful that the smear tactics of the newspaper from Denver have been exposed by someone who would not stand by as they used his work in a malicious way designed to hurt a candidate that they did not agree with.  Scott is “in it to win it” and this slip up by that newspaper really should make everyone take a closer look at the work they are doing and how sound are their sources because they were way off on this one.