80 Percent of Local 10th Graders Fail State Reading Test ...

... and our local reporter -- John Lawhorne -- allows the school district superintendent to "focus ... on the positive."

There is no accountability when a reporter acts as PR flack for a town's power structure.

And more from the not-really-a-reporter department: (but given column space, anyway...

More on Chip Ballard's silliness

Word for Word -- Again

Chip Ballard, local-color columnist, routinely writes stories without attribution. He did it again this morning. His front-porch ramble, which boils down to how nice that we have cars so we can drive to the dentist instead of waiting for a circuit rider, launches with a brief history of the automobile. Ballard's words, phrasing, sentence structure and order of ideas throughout the section appear to come directly from a third-rate (also unattributed and unsourced) Internet site called Idea Finder. Here's the side-by-side comparison.

Idea Finder: The earliest ancestor of the modern automobile is probably the Fardier, a three-wheeled, steam-powered, 2.3-mph vehicle built in 1771 by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot for the French minister of war. This cumbersome machine was never put into production because it was much slower and harder to operate than a horse-drawn vehicle.

Chip Ballard: The earliest ancestor of the modern automobile was the Fardier, a three-wheeled, steam-powered, 2.3-mph vehicle built in 1771 by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot for the French minister of war. This machine was never put into production because it was so cumbersome and it was slower and harder to operate than a horse and buggy.

Idea Finder: The milestone vehicle was built in Germany in 1889 by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. Powered by a 1.5 hp, two-cylinder gasoline engine, it had a four-speed transmission and traveled at 10 mph.

Chip Ballard: The first internal combustion engine was built by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1886. It had a 1.5 hp, two-cylinder gasoline engine, a four-speed transmission and traveled at 10 mph.

Idea Finder: The first automobile to be produced in quantity was the 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile, which was built in the United States by Ransom E. Olds. Modern automobile mass production, and its use of the modern industrial assembly line, is credited to Henry Ford of Detroit, Michigan, who had built his first gasoline-powered car in 1896. Ford began producing his Model T in 1908, and by 1927, when it was discontinued, over 18 million had rolled off the assembly line.

Chip Ballard: The first automobile to be produced in quantity was the 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile, which was built in the United States by Ransom E. Olds. But Modern automobile mass production and the use of the modern industrial assembly line, are credited to Henry Ford of Detroit, Mich., who had built his first gasoline-powered car in 1896. Ford began mass production of his Model T in 1908; by 1927, when it was discontinued, over 18 million had been sold.

Chip's paragraph about the first speeder may have come from a San Diego Porsche club forum where it was posted by Ted Myrus, Autocrosser, back on Jan. 22, 2005: “The nation’s first speeder was arrested in 1899 by a New York policeman riding a bicycle. The speeder was whizzing along at an amazing 12 mph." Myrus gives a source , "SAE Update, 2/05."

Ballard seems to misread the post and reports the speeder was on a bike, instead of the cop. But he likes the phrase “at an amazing 12 mph” well enough to copy that part accurately.

Did Ballard plagiarize his prose from Idea Finders and a Porsche forum? We'll never know because Ballard doesn't attribute. He would have us all believe he just woke up this morning knowing all this stuff. Such a smart man.

Plagiarism Stinks Like Second-Hand Smoke

Erin Hess, a “healthy lifestyle coordinator” and public information officer for Hardee County's health department has produced a boring little article about the effects of second-hand smoke on household pets. And the Charlotte Sun ran it today in the DeSoto edition’s main sheet and, for good measure, reprinted it in Dawn Kreb’s tab, “Health and Fitness.”

The problem is, although local editors felt confident enough in the putative author's honesty to run her article and mug shot, Erin Hess didn't write the piece at all. Her article is a childish "cut and paste" essay carried out with the sophistication of a middle-schooler -- which is just about the time youngsters in Florida schools learn the beauties of attribution. Hess apparently was adjusting her makeup when her language arts teacher told the class about the power of the little phrases: "According to," and "Someone said."

To get started on her article about protecting pets from the dangers of second-hand smoke, Hess (a professional public information person) needed a couple of opening paragraphs. For these she swung by a Web page posted by the New Jersey Record, which reprints (with permission) an article credited to Jura Koncius of the Washington Post . Koncius's entire brief reads like this:

If you really love your pet, stop smoking.

We all know that secondhand tobacco smoke is bad for people, but research indicates that it poses health risks to pets as well. Secondhand smoke has been linked to lymphoma in cats as
well as lung and nasal cancer in dogs.

Arden Moore, a nationally recognized pet expert, says that many pets -- especially cats -- spend most of their lives indoors, subjected to air pollution left by tobacco smoke. And because their body mass is so much smaller than humans', they are at increased risk of being adversely affected by that smoke. Smoke particles can also be ingested by cats, dogs and other pets when they groom themselves and lick their fur.

Back here in Hardee County, our local professional does a little cut-and-paste magic to create her second and third paragraphs, nearly word for word, from the Washington Post writer: We all know that second-hand tobacco smoke is bad for people, but ongoing research indicates that it poses health risks to pets as well. Second-hand smoke has been linked to lymphoma in cats as well as lung and nasal cancer in dogs. Many pets, especially cats, spend most of their lives indoors, subjected to air pollution left by tobacco smoke. And because their body mass is so much smaller than humans, they are at increased risk of being adversely affected by that smoke. Smoke particles can also be ingested by cats, dogs and other pets when they groom themselves and lick their fur.

But Erin Hess finds that’s not enough. There’s still the whole middle section to write copy. For that, she turns to Andrea Thompson, who is credited as the Live Science staff writer at a Web site of the same name. Here’s what she wrote, in part:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 126 million Americans who don't smoke are exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes, vehicles, workplaces, and public places. This exposure causes thousands of lung cancer and heart disease deaths among nonsmokers every year, according to the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Hess, our local professional public information officer, thinks this would make a dandy fourth paragraph, and so she taps out the plagiarist's favorite keyboard shortcut: CTL+A, CTL+C, CTL+V: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 126 million Americans who don’t smoke are exposed to second-hand smoke in their homes, vehicles, workplaces and public spaces. This exposure causes thousands of lung cancer and heard disease deaths among nonsmokers every year.

Thompson, over at Live Science, concludes her Web article by proposing designated smoking areas that separate pets from smoke:

To help prevent animals from being adversely affected by smoking, pet owners who smoke should have a designated smoking area that is separated from the home or stop smoking altogether, MacAllister said

Hess likes the idea so much she steals the same idea and identical wording for her fifth paragraph: To help prevent animals from being adversely affected by smoking, pet owners who smoke should have a designated smoking area that is separated from the home or stop smoking altogether.

_____________________________________

Part of attaining the status of a"professional" is demonstrating the ability to explain a field's complex ideas in interesting and clear ways. Erin Hess of Hardee County is billed as a professional in the local health department. In fact, she has a long way to go. Old Word Wolf suggests a course in ethics, for starters.

From the Same Publication:

Web Site of the Week: "Author and health coach Sonny Julius has deigned [sic] a special report about diet, healthy eating practices, and what a person needs to do to be sure they are making the right decisions about the food you eat."

Thanks, but OWW will make her own decisions about the food she eats.

And finally, Let's review those pesky W's again. This time, "Sun Correspondent" Chip Ballard tells us a burglary happened "less than a month after five members of the Zolfo Springs Police Department were let go because of a financial crunch the town was facing," and he helpfully adds the home was invaded at about 12:30 p.m.

Please, Chip, might that be one day less than a month? Or 29 days less than a month? Wouldn't it just be clearer and more reader friendly to simply tell readers the robbery took place on a particular day?

Unique It's Not

This week’s travesty of medical “journalism” is written by public-relations person Michelle Ritter, who receives pay and benefits for saying nice things about her employer. And Charlotte Sun's publisher provides the newsprint for its regular advertiser.

Ritter's news is her employer is “celebrating” (yuck) a new unit at Fawcett Memorial Hospital. After making like she’s actually interviewed a couple of doctors about their “dreams” and “excitement,” she reports her employer provides “state-of-the-art” equipment where patients are treated “like family.” All those clichés are common among second-rate public relations writers. But most flacks -- and newspaper copydesk editors -- are bright enough to avoid the most sophomoric adjectives of all:

Another unique and very important feature of the program is its staff of dedicated nurses.

Tell us, please, what hospital-written news release has not mentioned its dedicated nurses? None of this is unique, Michelle.

The nurses that work in the Spine and Orthopedic Center are specially trained ...

Patients expect the staff to have special training. Otherwise, why go to a specialist?

...and uniquely skilled to treat this type of patient.

Does Ritter expect readers to believe no other orthopedic service in the country trains its orthopedic nurses?

They work only with patients who have had spine or orthopedic procedures ....

And yet at various points in the rest of the story, Ritter claims the staff works with families, doctors, the concierge on call, visitors, and the rest of the hospital’s staff as needed. There’s no “only” about it.

...so these patients receive the maximum attention that they need to heal quickly and effectively

Umm, attention doesn't promote healing, Doctor Ritter. Faulty cause and effect.

Ritter concludes in a tone of breathless amazement, calling even the nurse’s uniforms unique. The photo shows blue golf shirts and beige jackets and vests. Unique they are not.

And unfortunately, neither is this tired and windy piece of free, unedited copy provided by a regular advertiser and positioned as both the cover and "double truck" centerpiece in the Sunday tab.

For the weekly plagiarism discussion ...

Come On, Chip -- You Know You Should Cite a Source or Two

Local colorist Chip Ballard is a citizen journalist. He's also a teacher and, as such, knows quite well that if we don't cite our sources, we're plagiarizing.

Ballard teaches children, and he regularly publishes his own works. Yet, this morning, he and Charlotte Sun editors found it acceptable to run a long paen to American writer John O'Hara without one word of attribution. It seems Ballard woke up one sunny morning knowing exactly what Dorothy Parker said to John O'Hara and what O'Hara said to John Steinbeck and what New York hotels John O'Hara drank at, and when and with whom.

Chip, you don't have to steal something word-for-word to plagiarize. If you rewrite the research, ideas, and information of O'Hara's biographers and present without acknowledging their efforts under your byline, you are a plagiarist.

Shoot! He's Guilty!

Police were engaged in a volley of gunfire with three suspects Saturday night, killing one of them after stopping a car for speeding in a routine traffic violation. The suspect died Sunday morning.

Later, police learned that the suspects, described as "three Hispanic males," had robbed the Wauchula Hills Super Market.

The other two gunmen fled into nearby woods and are still at large, police said. Two bullet holes pierced the police car. Neither police officer was injured. A FDLE investigation is ongoing.

1. How many cops? Which city's finest shot a man during a "routine traffic violation?" Is speeding a routine traffic violation in Zolfo Springs? Was the injured man given medical assistance? Where did he die?

2. Killing someone for a traffic violation is fairly serious. How did this come about? What is the name of the policeperson who shot the traffic violator? Did the driver or a passenger pull a gun?

3. Why are the men at the traffic stop "suspects" if police didn't learn until later a store had been robbed? How does Sun Correspondent Chip Ballard know these three men had robbed the store? There's been no trial, but our citizen reporter has convicted them in the second graf -- and no copy editor caught it.

4. What was taken in the robbery? What's the address of the market? Who was on duty at the store? Time?

5. FDLE is a first reference; spell it out. What's being investigated: the robbery, the "routine" traffic stop, the police shooting, or all of it? When is a report expected?

6. What's the dead man's name? It has been more than 24 hours since Saturday night -- plenty of time to track it down.

Chip Ballard is a local scribe, specializing in country nostalgia and Elvis bios. Some might classify him as a "regional colorist," right up there with Sarah Orne Jewett. But covering the crackerbarrel and the police blotter require distinctly different writing techniques. Before asking Ballard to cover a sensitive local beat, perhaps Sun editors should offer to train the tyro. There's a story with a coherent narrative buried in here somewhere. Readers would appreciate getting that report.

Memo: Make it Local! ...

Local Residents tour $20-million addition to DMH

Local residents got their first look at DeSoto Memorial Hospital's new state-of-the-art, $20-million addition during a gala showcase Saturday.

"DeSoto County has somerthing to be very proud of," local entrepreneur and stylist Linda Summers said.

Local retiree Pat Gordon said, "I'm very impressed."

Who's Editing the Editors?Editor Dawn Krebs writes: "Overstuffed loveseats and soft accents give the area a ambiance that you stepped into someone's living room."