Internet lists have recently established that by definition all music
critics are lazy, ignorant, shiftless, greedy, immoral ink-stained
wretches, and it now appears that some of our number are also guilty
of "self-plagiarism"!

Does this mean that in addition to being deaf, music critics will also
go blind?

   Music Critic of Miami Herald Fired
   Associated Press
   July 6, 2004


   MIAMI (AP) - The Miami Herald fired an arts and culture critic
   after discovering he had copied substantially from articles
   he had written for other newspapers.

   Octavio Roca was dismissed June 28.  He joined the Herald
   [www.herald.com] last year.

   Roca "produced several articles for the Herald that had been
   copied substantially from those he had written for newspapers
   where he had previously worked," executive editor Tom Fiedler
   wrote in a column Sunday [4 July].

   Roca defended his work, likening it to a college professor
   delivering the same lecture to a different audience, Fiedler
   wrote.  But Fiedler said the "self-plagiarism" was more akin
   to a student who turns in the same term paper to multiple
   classes.

   Fiedler wrote that it broke faith with readers "who expect
   that the articles in the Herald are fresh and timely unless
   it's otherwise made clear."

   The replicated work was brought to the paper's attention about
   two weeks ago, Fiedler said, and a staff librarian discovered
   more than half a dozen articles that were similar to his
   previous work.

   Fiedler said most of the articles first appeared in the San
   Francisco Chronicle, where Roca was a dance critic before
   coming to the Herald.

   Roca was on vacation abroad when the work was discovered.  He
   was confronted by editors when he returned June 28, Fiedler
   said.

   Roca's number is unlisted and other attempts to reach him
   Monday [5 July] were not successful.

   He previously worked as a classical music critic for The
   Washington Post and The Washington Times, and international
   theater correspondent for the CBC-Radio Canada network.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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