The premier plagiarist of 2012 delivered a sort-of apology to a Knight Foundation luncheon Tuesday and, in a nice touch, his hosts projected a live feed of Twitter reaction as he spoke. Soon, however, Poynter's Andrew Beaujon reported that Knight paid Lehrer $20,000 for his mea whatever. More from Paul Raeburn, Daniel Engber, and Curtis Brainard.
Science writing news
A New York hospital group's PR firm sends out press releases urging reporters to quote its experts on embargoed studies by other researchers, Ivan Oransky writes on Embargo Watch. A clever way to help writers and get ink? Or too clever, since the journal publishing the studies did not consent? "Other hospitals, playing closer to the rules, might wish they had thought of this strategy before. But I wonder if this isn’t the scientific embargo version of insider trading."
Tax-savvy freelance writers and other self-employed individuals know that they have two choices on how to write off their outlays for purchases of equipment and other kinds of personal property. One is depreciation; the other is so-called first-year expensing. But countless tax-challenged writers mistakenly believe that depreciation is the only way to deduct equipment purchases. As a result, they pay far more in taxes each year than legally required.
If so, you weren't the only one. That brief guide to Good English won the most mentions when Mike Feinsilber asked 21 journalists to name the books "that drew them into the business." The rest of the list is heavy on the usual suspects — journo-whodunits like All The President's Men, political narratives like The Making of the President 1960 and The Boys on the Bus, and a few wild cards, like Tom Wolfe's collection The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.
From the New York Observer's Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke comes an upbeat story about laid-off journalists finding new careers writing for blogs owned by commercial brands. There's scarcely a nod toward the view that such sponsorship is bad (ahem, Pepsigate) for either journalists or journalism: "While writing gigs at magazines and newspapers continue to dry up, there are abundant opportunities to write or consult for blogs owned directly by brands."
The Retraction Watch blog made its name by shining light on scientific papers pulled for misrepresentation, misconduct, malpractice, or other chicanery. This week, however, the blog was notified that 10 of its posts were pulled by its web host because an Indian web site claimed copyright to them. Not true, said RW's Ivan Oransky. More from John Timmer and Tom Levenson, plus five similar episodes.
Scientist and science communicator Ainissa Ramirez expands her 2012 TED talk, with a plan for boosting children’s interest in science, technology, engineering, and math: "In Save Our Science: How to Inspire a New Generation of Scientists, I spell out my plan for how to make science more fun again, and how to make sure that everyone has access to STEM educational opportunities."
Ever hear the term "Take out the trash Friday?" As Denise Graveline explains in this post about transparency in press release timing, it's from a West Wing episode and refers to the once-common practice of letting bad news out when no one's paying attention: "Used to be that big organizations, including government agencies, got in the habit of releasing not-so-good news on Friday afternoons, when they were less likely to garner coverage and attention over the weekend."
What is a narrative? Does it require "a central character who encounters a problem, and the problem is somehow resolved?" Or is it, more broadly, "an account of connected events?" DeLene Beeland discusses that question — and how writing is like deconstructing a Jenga tower ("what we take out of our writing is just as important to the integrity and strength of a piece as what we keep in") — in a recap of a session at the just-concluded ScienceOnline2013 conference.