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The Neil Harman plagiarism scandal
Jul. 24th, 2014 08:20 pmNews broke yesterday that respected tennis writer Neil Harman had plagiarized large swathes of at least three of the ten commemorative Wimbledon annuals that he had been commissioned to write between 2004-2013. Harman, the senior tennis correspondent for The Times (in London), has enjoyed an illustrious sportswriting career, including 40 years of covering professional tennis. Harman issued an apology and resigned from the International Tennis Writers Association, of which he co-founded and served as president.
The All England Club became aware of his plagiarism earlier this year and dismissed him from his job compiling its annual yearbook. However, this was not made public until yesterday, when fellow tennis writer Ben Rothenberg published (what turned out to be) the first in a series of articles on the subject at Slate.com.
Let me just say, from the start, that I abhor plagiarism. As a victim of plagiarism myself (albeit under slightly different and possibly sillier circumstances), I know how much it hurts to have your work lifted, changed, and published without credit. Its the sort of anger you can't understand until its happened to you. So, while I appreciate Rothenberg breaking this shocking news to the tennis world, I do not believe he has handled it in the best way.
( However, gloating about being right sometimes means shooting yourself in the foot )
Update: The Times has suspended Harman indefinitely as it conducts its own investigation, and he deleted his Twitter account.
And there's only one person still talking about it in the tennis Twittersphere. Dude, just shut up already - you're only digging yourself into a deeper hole.
The All England Club became aware of his plagiarism earlier this year and dismissed him from his job compiling its annual yearbook. However, this was not made public until yesterday, when fellow tennis writer Ben Rothenberg published (what turned out to be) the first in a series of articles on the subject at Slate.com.
Let me just say, from the start, that I abhor plagiarism. As a victim of plagiarism myself (albeit under slightly different and possibly sillier circumstances), I know how much it hurts to have your work lifted, changed, and published without credit. Its the sort of anger you can't understand until its happened to you. So, while I appreciate Rothenberg breaking this shocking news to the tennis world, I do not believe he has handled it in the best way.
( However, gloating about being right sometimes means shooting yourself in the foot )
Update: The Times has suspended Harman indefinitely as it conducts its own investigation, and he deleted his Twitter account.
And there's only one person still talking about it in the tennis Twittersphere. Dude, just shut up already - you're only digging yourself into a deeper hole.
