News Organizations Should Not Be Plagiarism Monitors

To the editors:

The Harvard Crimson has become first-stop shopping for Ivy League fabulist-catching. Rather than reporting, it seems to me that there is a small army of fact checkers now on board to catch Harvard writers and Crimson reporters for plagiarism. Certainly, this is important. However, given the headlines that have run in The Crimson over the past few weeks, one would think that it has become the preoccupation of The Crimson to become the clearinghouse for catching plagiarism at Harvard rather than a news organization.

While fabulists generate national attention because of schadenfreude (and in turn, help Crimson reporters get their names in the national press), perhaps breaking stories that merit national stature, including about the presidential search or reforms to the Core would be a better use of resources.

Finally, perhaps The Crimson should impose stricter standards on its own writers and cartoonists before allowing them to publish—in the old days, one had to actually compete to have stories in the paper. Perhaps this would be a way to ensure quality and a standard of ethics.

NICOLE B. USHER ’03

Los Angeles

October 30, 2006

The writer was a Crimson senior news editor in 2002.