EDITOR'S NOTE: This Post was updated as of 4:57 p.m. EDT on November 30.
This correction ran yesterday in the Arizona Daily Star:
A Cox News Service story about an Arab version of the Barbie doll that ran Nov. 20 on A23 contained quotes from two people who do not exist and plagiarized an article published earlier this year by the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. Link
The story in question is still up on several sites with no mention of the problems. And even after publishing this serious (albeit brief) correction, the Star still has the offending story up online, sans any mention of the correction. Oy. We contacted the managing editor of Cox News by email last night to see if the service put out an official correction and haven't yet heard back. (see below). We also inquired about the employment status of Craig Nelson, the Cox reporter who wrote the story. The piece is datelined Damascus and Nelson previously reported from Iraq. Here's an Editor & Publisher Q+A with him from 2003.
UPDATE: Andy Alexander, the Washington bureau chief of Cox Newspapers, just gave us a call to explain what happened. First and foremost, he told us, Craig Nelson was not responsible for the fabrications or plagiarized material. It appears that a stringer was tasked with some additional reporting on the story and the stringer, George Baghdadi, now says he farmed the work out to his assistant, Hussein Ali. Baghdadi says the questionable material is the work of the assistant. Alexander says he and his team have not been able to get Ali on the phone to confirm this. Baghdadi says he fired the assistant and, as of now, he has been unwilling to produce him.
"Let me put it this way," says Alexander, "we have been unable to talk to [Ali] and we would like to. He is the key player in this and we would have preferred to talk to him directly."
According to Alexander, Nelson was asked to write about the Fulla doll, an Arab version of Barbie. Nelson visited many stores but was unable to complete the whole story.
"Craig went to a lot of stores and did a lot of reporting but he had to leave [Syria] before he could find a child, or mother and child, purchasing [the doll]," says Alexander. "Craig had worked with George Baghdadi, a pretty well known stringer. After Craig got back to Jerusalem he sent George an email saying he was never able to find someone purchasing the doll. He asked George to go to one of the stores and find someone."
Baghdadi says he sent Ali to get the quotes and then emailed them to Nelson, who added them into the story and sent it off. Then last Tuesday an editor at the St. Petersburg Times contacted Alexander to inform him that there were "striking similarities" between the Cox piece and one from the Times. They investigated and Baghdadi says he then discovered that his assistant used portions of the Times story to make up his quotes. That was the first time anyone at Cox had heard of Baghdadi's assistant.
"This is one of those things we never want to have happen," says Alexander. "We looked back on this to try to think what we could have done better. We were dealing with a stringer who is well-established but we got whacked and we feel horrible about it."
Cox sent a correction/apology via the New York Times News Service, which had distributed the story. And that's what made the Arizona Daily Star run its correction. (The Cox correction/apology is pasted at the end of this post.)
About the plagiarism/fabrications
The Star correction says that two of the sources in the article do not exist, and that the piece plagiarized from an article in the St. Petersburg Times published earlier this year. The Times has published two articles about the Fulla doll: One on Jan 12, 2004 (link) and one on May 15, 2005 (link). As for the quotes in the Cox piece, they do seem just a little too perfect. Take this one:
"I have always wanted to buy Fulla since I saw her on TV last year," said 9-year-old Samar Halabi as she shopped in the Damascus toy store.
..."I was longing to hold her in my hand," Samar said. "She has a very beautiful face with large brown eyes and long, coal-black hair streaked with auburn."
A 9 year-old talking about "coal-black hair streaked with auburn" does seem a little suspicious. Especially when you read this passage from the May St. Pete story:
The product development team considered 10 different faces before settling on the Fulla look: large brown eyes and long, coal-black hair streaked with auburn.
This quote from the same girl also appears to be taken from a St. Pete story:
"The problem now is that I cannot decide. There's now a 'Singing Fulla' and a 'Walking Fulla' pushing a luggage cart with suitcases to hold the dozens of seasonal outfits that crowd her closet. What should I do?" Samar smiled.
From the Times:
There's now a Singing Fulla and a Walking Fulla, pushing a luggage cart with suitcases to hold the dozens of seasonal outfits that crowd her closet.
Bottom line
While we wait for an official word from Cox,
The Cox note (below) explains things
clearly to client newspapers, but it lacks
any suggested language for a correction. It doesn't
offer any guidance as to how newspapers should communicate the story's
problems to readers. It reads like an internal apology so it's no surprise
that editors didn't feel inclined to take action.
Finally, Alexander says it is Cox's policy to credit stringers if they contribute to an article. Because it wasn't done in this case, Nelson had to unfairly take the heat until the truth could come out. Most media outlets have a lot of solid policies on the books. But policies are hollow musings if they aren't put into practice. This is as true with stringers as it is with policies on anonymous sourcing and ethics. You have to walk the talk.
The Cox correction/apology:
CORRECTION/APOLOGY TO NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE CLIENTS
A Correction and Apology
Editors:
A story slugged BURQA-BARBIE20-COX that moved on the New York Times News Service for use Sunday, Nov. 20, contained material that was fabricated and material that originally appeared in an article published earlier this year by the St. Petersburg Times. A Syrian-based journalist, who assisted in the reporting for the story, has taken responsibility for the suspect material and apologized.
Craig Nelson, a contract freelancer who has written for Cox Newspapers from the Middle East since 2001, wrote the story about a doll marketed in the Muslim world. While in Damascus, Nelson employed the services of Damascus-based Syrian journalist George Baghdadi to assist with research for the story.
Baghdadi, whose work has appeared in Time magazine and USA Today among other publications, was asked by Nelson to interview Syrians shopping for the popular doll called “Fulla” and provide quotes about the doll's appeal to consumers. Nelson included a submission from Baghdadi in his story, but failed to credit him, which is contrary to Cox Newspapers' sourcing policy.
After Nelson's story moved on the NYTNS wire and appeared in print, editors for the St. Petersburg Times noted similarities between certain quotes in the Nelson story and passages from a staff-written story published in May by the St. Petersburg Times. These disturbing similarities were brought to the attention of Cox editors last week.
An investigation by editors at Cox Newspapers revealed the following:
* Portions of the Nelson story reported by Nelson were not in question and showed no similarities to the St. Petersburg Times article.
* Nelson was unaware that the material supplied by Baghdadi for his story was suspect.
* Baghdadi admits that two people quoted in Nelson's story were fabricated and that their quotations were lifted in part from passages that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times.
* Baghdadi took responsibility for the fabrication and plagiarism, but said that he was not directly responsible for providing the material. He claims that one of his assistants, Hussein Ali, was responsible for the ethical lapses and has been fired. Baghdadi would not make Ali available to the editors of Cox Newspapers for questioning.
As a result of this unfortunate incident, Cox Newspapers apologizes to its readers, the clients of the NYTNS and, especially, to the St. Petersburg Times.
endit
