Magazine Editor and College Seniors Plagiarize for Same Reason: Stress
 

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Ocala Magazine finally got its name on the map…though probably not in the way the Central Florida living mag was hoping to. Some anonymous tipster sent a local paper a thick vanilla envelope containing 20 counts of plagiarism from Ocala's editor, Heather Lee. Lee apparently took from a variety of not-so-subtle sources, including The Wall Street Journal, Oprah's magazine, and Entertainment Weekly, which seems like sort of a harebrained scheme. After all, Lee was producing a magazine in Florida, where old people have nothing better to do than watchdog the local publishing. These are the same people who think it's a scandal if a coupon is misspelled.

And what was Lee's excuse, once she was caught? She never knowingly copied a sentence in her life, it's just that her job is so stressful!

"Producing 17 issues a year is a huge responsibility, especially with a limited staff and little to no freelancers," she wrote in an e-mail to the Star-Banner on Friday. "Many times I'm working and researching dozens of stories months and months ahead of time collecting data, ideas, thoughts, quotes and the like from every resource possible. All of this goes into a running file that I keep on my desktop, referencing, revising and cutting as it gets closer to deadline. I do my best to keep detailed notes as to where the items come from and I believe that as I work through the files, getting closer to finished copy that I amend all the information to be in my own voice. So when I say that I never intentionally reproduced someone else's work as my own, I'm being truthful.

"Clearly, in the course of six years and millions and millions of words, there's the possibility that phrases and paragraphs can slip through the cracks.

Lee has yet to be fired from Ocala, which is causing a lot of outrage over with the people at the Poynter Institute. Because who does Lee think she is? The Huffington Post?

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Comments (5)

No. 1 · jane

Hopefully they spellcheck…particularly for the word plagarize

Posted: Mar 23, 2009 at 2:18 pm · @Reply · [Flag?]
No. 2 · Dean Blinkhorn

I'm the editor of the other magazine here, Ocala Style. Please use Ocala Magazine's cover with this story and not ours!

Posted: Mar 23, 2009 at 3:30 pm · @Reply · [Flag?]
No. 3 · Dean Blinkhorn

Please remove the Ocala Style cover immediately. It is not the publication in question. This is a cover of Ocala Magazine:
ocala.jpg

Posted: Mar 23, 2009 at 4:09 pm · @Reply · [Flag?]
No. 4 · el chupacabras

too late Dean! I will now forever shun Ocala Style, while I will continue to spend barrels of money on Ocala Magazine.

Posted: Mar 24, 2009 at 8:54 am · @Reply · [Flag?]
No. 5 · Suzy

Dean:
As a magazine editor myself, I'm with you on this one!

Posted: Mar 24, 2009 at 1:24 pm · @Reply · [Flag?]
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