Plagiarism and the Albany Journal

The following post was stolen from the Don Buie thread right here on TOPIX:

Plain Jane on Main wrote:

... Ya'll need leadership down there. Pronto. They expect this poor Don Buie fellow to give them all the answers and lead the way. That's their job, but no one on the commission is taking the lead - and most are incapable. It's a toughie.

The journal also plagiarized posts from City-Data.com including this one:

HUMBLESTUDENT wrote:

Hello I am a 21 year old student who was born and raised in ALbany GA. I went to college at one of the local colleges there where I obtained my two year degree. I then decided that I needed to get out of ALbany while I had the chance. Since then I have transfered to a four year university up in Atlanta GA. I have been living here in atlanta for about 10 months now and I can really see that Albany is a strange city. It once was known as the good Life CIty. That is until the crime activity increased.
Even though I was a current resident of the city I want to speak out and shed some light on it. THe city is in my opinon in an economic crisis. There are not enough corporate jobs with secure benifits. Coorporations such as MERK , Bob's Candy , the Penut Plant, Belks Outlet store and other business have closed up shop and moved their business to other cities.We have homeless people living on the streets and for the last 6 years there has been an increase in teenage pregnancy. Many people are struggling tring to survive by living pay check to pay check, others are living on welfare.the job that I was doing in ALbany before I moved I was only getting $6.15 an hour ;however that same job in Atlanta pays $9.00.

And this one:

CHRISH 3985 wrote:

Albany is OK. In fact is very cheap, in some respects. Housing is cheap. Lots of folks are moving to Lee County where there is a better school system. St Teresa's is a great private school as an alternative in Albany. Many sections seem 90% or higher black population. Many are prejudice against whites. But not always. People are friendly, and at least polite.

And this one, too:

GEORGIA123 wrote:

"I live just outside the Albany City Limit sign in Lee County.....about two miles outside Albany. The two are not very far apart. When driving from Albany to Lee County you can't tell the difference really. It looks like the city just keeps going. Albany is that bad. I grew up here too. Compared to other places I've lived it is a little better. As for the comment someone else made; I think theres plenty of things for people to do, young and old alike. The question is ...What Kind Of Fun Do You Want To Get Into. "

Worse still, these posts were edited to leave out the essence of each. See for yourself. The CITY-DATA.COM posts may be found at http://www.city-data.com/forum/georgia/151038...

This is theft without attribution. Hogencamp ought to know better than to steal incomplete portions of copyrighted material and offer a vague "from the Web and reader emails" as a citation. Even if Hogencamp was the original author posting under various pseudonyms, its still theft of copyrighted material.

This is pathetic and reprehensible. It has no place in journalism and demonstrates that the fired assistant city manager is probably once again in over his head.

PS. Plagiarism is a bad example to set for the kids.

If you are referring to this week's Albany Journal, I agree. There is no excuse for that sort of thing - even desperation. However, IMHO that wasn't the worst screw-up in the Journal this week. The editorial about the Wildcats was frought with errors and inaccurate numbers from beginning to end.

1. Despite the undeserved criticism by the Journal, City Attorney Nathan Davis understands the situation and Hogencamp doesn't. Davis is acting in the best interests of Albany. The year-round concession, catering and signage revenue should belong exclusively to the taxpayers.

2. Contrary to the assertions in the editorial, the Wildcats do not add a single dime to the local economy. Instead they prevent a positive economic impact by occupying the center during concert season.

3. The facts do not support any assertion of a positive economic benefit to the community from "40,000 - 50,000 people coming a year into the area to go to games." The overwhelming majority of ticketholders are local. The same 4,000 people attend the games over and over.

4. The only realistic way to bring in 40,000 out-of-towners' monies into our economy is to open the civic center to concerts and shows during the peak season (April - August) each year without sending a half-million in concession sales and ad revenues out-of-state to the Wildcats owners.

I liked the Journal a lot better when it was a spoof - bad ink and all. "Dear Brittany" was a hoot when it was based on actual gossip. Unfortunately the Journal is trying to compete as a "real" newspaper in an oversaturated media market. Real newspapers don't plagiarize and most try to vette out inaccuracies even in editorials.

I like the albany journal.

Ahem...

Nothing is wrong with quoting topix. It said "from the web". End of story.

Celebrity got way too much in concessions and signs. The city pays the operating expenses on the signs. To be fair the city should offer to buy the signs back at depreciated value + a 5% profit. Then offer a fifty-fifty deal using base-minimum pricing to anyone, including Arena/Celebrity as well as anyone in the general community who gets out and sells them, including civic and community groups. Management can be easily absorbed into the existing City staff... along with up to $200,000 of the $400,000 in presently-lost signage revenues.

Otherwise, create a job selling ads for the city and keep all the revenue.

As for concessions... It may be "just a big restaurant" but dont overlook that IT HAS NO KITCHEN!!!! The objection is the exclusivity. So contract out for concessions, Set up a fair way to do it either event-by-event (which I like) or for a flat regular monthly fee of not less than $2,000 a month regardless of attendance + 10% of sales.
And find some way to build a fully functional kitchen like Jimmy and Strategic intended in 1982.

Kevin's doing a great job. Dontcha think so j-a-c? You guys are being too harsh. et tu atwom?

But I do miss Brittany too and the tongue-in-cheek - from back before the aging princess fell off her barstool.

Yo, re-Rooster. Thanks for the invite to weigh in here. You are 100% right on the money. There was zippo plagiarism as discussed above. At the bottom of that column, it is clearly stated that it is "compiled from the web." Maybe Hogencamp could, if he chooses, make reference to each specific source like "source: topix.com ." or just list them at the end, but not really necessary in a column like this vs. a master's thesis.

As to the suggestion that there is a copyright violation, also quite incorrect. I'm not sure anyone has a copyright on an anonymous public posting on a website like this in the first place (as opposed to the whole collection of comments and format that comprise the website), but, in any case, the Journal's use of the posts as it does would likely fall within the "fair use doctrine" which under Section 107 of the federal Copyright Act permits these lifts for, among other reasons, news reporting purposes or when the amount of material quoted is insubstantial compared to the whole body of work.

I almost choke saying it, but the Journal has done this right.

It seems Hogencamp is a careful writer who does his best to describe his sources of information or basis for conclusion in his articles.

Even the New York Times gets tagged with some shoddy journalism on occasion (not to suggest this of Kevin - ATWOM, he did show the 40,000 visitors as being a Lott quote in the editorial and even if all local, people are getting out of their houses and putting money into circulation), but I'd say Kevin is cleaning up the Journal nicely given he's trying to move it into more of a "community paper" space with a vigilent eye on government. He clearly has no love or professional respect for many of the city "leaders" - particularly Al Lott. His personal history with Lott may make this a all a little suspect, but he generally gives a basis for his criticisms (I'm not an every week reader). I bought a Journal after reading this thread and was surprized to find that the Don Buie arrest was not covered which is, of course, an editor's choice, particularly for a weekly. But if Al Lott had been arrested for the same thing ... I have to wonder.

And as far as the Brittany/Night Trax stuff, it's just not Kevin's world and he's probably in bed by 9 or reading to his kids from The Chicago Manual of Style.

Think where the Albany Journal has been. From an extortionist rag that would ruin a reputation unless you bought advertising, to a next generation of dishonest journalism of the worst mean-spirited kind, to ghost writing libelous and mean editorials by a municipal employee about city people and others, to hugely inflated circulation and reader pass-on rates, to a disregard of journalism ethics (the other media in town have had that same problem at times) etc etc. And that kind of garbage was tolerated.

Overall, I'd say Kevin is doing wonders for the paper and, indirectly and directly, providing a service to the community.

GO Kevin and keep it honest and the level of professionalism high.

Ah, the Wildcats. I think you're all a bit rough on them.

I'll be back at ya later with my biased, unattributed, gramatically atrocious, improperly spell-chcked comments about the team.

Go Wildcats.
Thanks for giving Albany a great winning season and lots of fun.
We're with you in the playoffs.
Go cats go.

Hey,
There are some very good people at the Herald including some good writers. Carlton Fletcher has written some very strong pieces. He seems to be a big producer - a workhorse. Jim Hendricks does a good job and can write. They are all probably doing some double duty over there with print advertising being down and the parent company carrying a lot of acquisition debt.

And the editorial board approach is an improvement.

Regretably the market for newspapers generally is down, the Albany market has had some losses of advertisers, and the Herald parent company is loaded with acquisition debt so the Herald has had to cut back hard, it seems.

But yes, chronic spelling and grammer errors are the kiss of death for keeping the confidence of the readers.

I had to laugh at a New York Times article headline about Washington DC that used the word "capital" in place of "capitol."

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Edits, Papers and Leaves

or sumthing like that, oh well

First I'm not as hard on the Wildcats as I am on the city.

This is our public Civic Center and is NOT the private domain of Celebrity/Arena management. Tax money is used to pay the expenses of the Wildcats. They have no more right to use it for their private revenue than I have to demand a free private office in the Government building and to have 90% or more of my expenses and all of my capital expenditures furnished by the city with tax dollars. But thats exactly what the city is providing to the Wildcats.

Our civic center is no different than any civic center anyplace. No other venue in the America has given away all of its concession and signage to a private out-of-town tenant. Not only is it a bone-headed decision it's illegal, so several residents and a team of attorneys stand poised to SUE THE CITY AND COUNTY over this unless next years contract reclaims the concessions and signage for the city and local taxpayers.

Not only that, the contract gives the owners of the team 50 cents per ticket for every concert, show or event year round. That - combined with no possibility of marketing and concession revenue is the reason no good shows are interested in Albany.

Let the Wildcats have their games. Do what is reasonable to accomodate the promoter/owners at a reasonable charge to them. But take back ownership of concessions and signage, eliminate the 50-cent facility fee which Storen and Hunt laugh about behind our backs, and let them decide that they will keep the Wildcats here on reasonable terms.

I know all the owners of the Wildcats. They won't go anywhere but they are laughing at how gullible our City Commissioners were the first time. Apparently Celebrity/Arena will push the envelope to see how much money the city will give away this time too. To quote one of them, "I'm still stunned that they (the City) didn't even object when we asked for the moon. So next time we'll take away the sun and stars too."

The Civic Center belongs to the City of Albany and the citizens of our county - Not to five guys from out-of-town.

Three other things:
1)(Again) The Wildcats games do NOT have a net positive economic impact on our community. They have a net negative effect.

2) The net lost concession and signage revenue exceeds $500,000 every single year ... that's more than $2,500,000 that Albany GAVE AWAY to outsiders over the past five years. Money that is needed more here than in the bank accounts of the out-of-town Wildcats owners group.

3)Laughing at real newspapers may make you feel better about yourself - but you're wrong again here too. Washington isn't a capitol, its a capital. As most of us learned in 1st grade, the word Capitol refers only to buildings. Look it up.

Dammit I get so tired of explaining...

I'm sorry... In my haste I mistakenly referred to the NY Times as a "real newspaper." They used to be.

AskTheWiseOldMan wrote:

"...Let the Wildcats have their games. Do what is reasonable to accomodate the promoter/owners at a reasonable charge to them. But take back ownership of concessions and signage, eliminate the 50-cent facility fee ...

Straight up brother.

AskTheWiseOldMan wrote:

I know all the owners of the Wildcats. They won't go anywhere but they are laughing at how gullible our City Commissioners were the first time. Apparently Celebrity/Arena will push the envelope to see how much money the city will give away this time too. To quote one of them, "I'm still stunned that they (the City) didn't even object when we asked for the moon. So next time we'll take away the sun and stars too."
...

Now kids. Fight fairly about the Wildcats. All this I know something you don't know. You who call yourself a Wise Old Man should not be throwing around unsupported statements and quotes like this. From what I heard about these owners, they are a decent group of men who didn't do this to get rich.

Having been raised in Albany, I read all these Albany topix postings and you are quoting people and supposed "facts" without support. You could be making things up. What you say is out of character for most people who would invest in a small community sports team. I consult to several major companies and these type of people just don't think that way - or the way you do.

I asked some people who know more than me. They said the city came out ahead financially on the Wildcats, besides bringing good entertainment and a winner in a legitimate national sport to Albany.

When you add in all the associated costs, the city never made money on the concessions. Now they are making $50,000 a year. The city never had any signage revenue. Now they get 10% for a little electricity. The city did not have to pay for signs being built. They certainly didn't give up any revenue. The city used to charge a $1.00 facility fee. They raised it to $2.00 and gave the Wildcats $.50, so the city picked up an extra $.50 per ticket. The city picked up income from at least 8 nights rental at the Civic Center from regular season games. This season they also have playoff home games. Your notion that Albany has a concert season or that the Wildcats cost the Civic Center concert dates is absurd. There is and was no concert season at the Civic Center and there are plenty of open dates including Saturday and Friday nights all year. The Wildcats showed other promoters that paying patrons could be brought into the Civic Center - although maybe not enough yet for a high cost offering like a professional football team.

So no prior net income was given to the Wildcats. In fact, because of the Wildcats coming to Albany, the city made money and should have taken more advantage of the Wildcats benefits.

These owners supplemented the Wildcats with more of their money and did not take out profits because there weren't any. These owners pumped more money into the team. It's shameful how you characterize these fine men. Albany has a legitimate competitive winner (we used to in Atlanta) and Albany would be way ahead if it could keep the Wildcats.

There is no team of attorneys waiting to pounce and there is nothing illegal about a Civic Center farming out functions or making a deal to bring in users especially one where overall the city coffers still come out ahead.

By the way, you don't know all the Owners and tey are not sitting around laughing.

Ask the Wise Old Man, you sound more like Ask The Bitter Old Man.

I almost all the "profit" (especially when you allocate costs) and none of the major hassles from concession sales/catering went to the civic center. The city got a great deal - particularly after all those event cancellations left the arena dark on far too many nights.

Also, don't count on the city having the same success with signage sales. The Wildcats packaged up signage with sponsorships and tickets - something the city can't do. Some signage advertisers bought in to support the Wildcats. Without the Wildcats, many of these advertisers just might not advertise, especially if the Wildcats are not around. Without the Wildcats, buying a sign at the VFW is a better value than buying one in the Civic Center.

I love sports and the wildcats put on a good show for Albany. Birmingham had the Steeldogs, but they couldn't make it work and we miss them. lots of folks wish they were back.

Do yourselves a faver and support your wildcats.

Owners don't make a bundle on football teams without TV money. Last I heard, the Wildcats weren't on tv.

sour grapes?

The wildcats....who cares? People really need to stop making up sports teams and leagues that nobody cares about. Waste of time and a waste of money.

Who cares?

Such an empty and uninteresting dismissal, but expected from a driftwood.

But who cares about driftwood anyway?

It's just flotsam. And in your case, jetsam too.

I suppose you find your television entertainment meaningful and socially valuable and not a waste of time and money.

But who really cares? It's time to stop making television programs that nobody cares about. Waste of time and a waste of money.

And then there are websites like this that you seem to enjoy rendering your opinion on. But who really cares, driftwood?

So what happened to the profits from the signage? The profits from the concession business? And why in the world does the city think that the Wildcats deserve a 50-cent facility fee?

The Wildcats have hijacked our Civic Center.

this is a game of pass and catch featuring midgets. nothing like real football. our high school team could kick the little wildcats asses up and down a hundred yard outdoor field with a running game.

AskTheWiseOldMan wrote:

First I'm not as hard on the Wildcats as I am on the city.
This is our public Civic Center and is NOT the private domain of Celebrity/Arena management. Tax money is used to pay the expenses of the Wildcats. They have no more right to use it for their private revenue than I have to demand a free private office in the Government building and to have 90% or more of my expenses and all of my capital expenditures furnished by the city with tax dollars. But thats exactly what the city is providing to the Wildcats...

Tree Rollins and others wanted to bring a basketball team here but couldn't because the city gave away the concessions to the Wildcats.

This sort of thing must never happen. Albany is a basketball town. Tifton and Valdosta are more football towns.

Gnome home in Rome wrote:

<quoted text>
Now kids. Fight fairly about the Wildcats. All this I know something you don't know. You who call yourself a Wise Old Man should not be throwing around unsupported statements and quotes like this. From what I heard about these owners, they are a decent group of men who didn't do this to get rich.
Having been raised in Albany, I read all these Albany topix postings and you are quoting people and supposed "facts" without support. You could be making things up. What you say is out of character for most people who would invest in a small community sports team. I consult to several major companies and these type of people just don't think that way - or the way you do.
I asked some people who know more than me. They said the city came out ahead financially on the Wildcats, besides bringing good entertainment and a winner in a legitimate national sport to Albany.
When you add in all the associated costs, the city never made money on the concessions. Now they are making $50,000 a year. The city never had any signage revenue. Now they get 10% for a little electricity. The city did not have to pay for signs being built. They certainly didn't give up any revenue. The city used to charge a $1.00 facility fee. They raised it to $2.00 and gave the Wildcats $.50, so the city picked up an extra $.50 per ticket. The city picked up income from at least 8 nights rental at the Civic Center from regular season games. This season they also have playoff home games. Your notion that Albany has a concert season or that the Wildcats cost the Civic Center concert dates is absurd. There is and was no concert season at the Civic Center and there are plenty of open dates including Saturday and Friday nights all year. The Wildcats showed other promoters that paying patrons could be brought into the Civic Center - although maybe not enough yet for a high cost offering like a professional football team.
So no prior net income was given to the Wildcats. In fact, because of the Wildcats coming to Albany, the city made money and should have taken more advantage of the Wildcats benefits.
These owners supplemented the Wildcats with more of their money and did not take out profits because there weren't any. These owners pumped more money into the team. It's shameful how you characterize these fine men. Albany has a legitimate competitive winner (we used to in Atlanta) and Albany would be way ahead if it could keep the Wildcats.
There is no team of attorneys waiting to pounce and there is nothing illegal about a Civic Center farming out functions or making a deal to bring in users especially one where overall the city coffers still come out ahead.
By the way, you don't know all the Owners and tey are not sitting around laughing.
Ask the Wise Old Man, you sound more like Ask The Bitter Old Man.

There's no reason to resort to name calling. No bitterness, just business.

There is a lawsuit because the Civic Center belongs to the city taxpayers, not this one tenant.

Hopefully the City Commission will approach the renegotiation in a business-like manner this time out and no lawsuits will be filed.

Since bringing the Wildcats here, they haven't been good citizens. The former managing member slandered Coach Siegfried and Mattie Goddard, ridiculed Mayor Adams behind his back, laughed aloud at out-negotiating the city commission and even slandered former employees to prospective employers. Bills have gone unpaid for years. The largest concession and food supplier in town cut them off.

Then there is the issue of substantial sums being paid to the wife of one of the commissioners as a "marketing consultant?"

You both sound angry. j-a-c when they broke ground for that Civic Center, WiseOldMan's head popped up out of the hole. In fact we were both at all the commission meetings during this discussion. You may have been there too.
Truth be told the Wildcats got everything they asked for - including the fee plus substantial negotiating pad - with no questions asked except by Commissioner Dorough. Mathis was also there. Despite the fact that we've been burned by every semi-pro sports team who ever breezed through town, including one just two years earlier and another that Storen was promoting a few years back, there were no questions asked and every request was granted.

The idea of an injunction has merit. The civic center is an investment of tax dollars and the Commissioners have a public duty to act in the best interests of the taxpayers. That means insisting that the Civic Center be run like a Civic Center and not an equestrian shed. It means operating ALL of the elements of a civic center in such a way that it maximizes the return to the taxpayer. I'm in favor of it.