Saturday, May 7, 2005

Pearce incident is closed

Our views

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce has responded swiftly and decisively to reports that at least one opinion column submitted to New Mexico newspapers under his name was actually lifted almost word-for-word from another source.

The congressman's press secretary has taken responsibility for the column and has resigned, although we suspect his options in that regard were limited.

We're certainly not celebrating the fact someone lost his job over this incident, but it would be difficult to expect any other outcome.

We have avoided using the term plagiarism to describe this case because there is some evidence the individual had on a previous occasion received blanket approval to use material from the Heritage Foundation Web site, where this column came from.

On the other hand, the individual has worked for a major wire service and should have known better.

The rules concerning attribution on material from other sources are drummed into every journalist from Day One. They are not something you forget when you move to the other side, and ignoring them is more than an error in judgment.

Rep. Pearce told us he had no knowledge that the contents of the column were not original, and we take him at his word. We certainly have no reason to believe otherwise.

He has also assured us that any future columns from him will be original, and sourced material will be attributed. We take him at his word on that as well.

Like us, Pearce thanked the reader who brought this to our attention.

So now, as far as we're concerned, this incident is closed.

We look forward to continuing to give Rep. Pearce the opportunity to present his views to his constituents, and for them to have confidence that they are, indeed, his views.

And, as always, we remain a forum for those who have opposing views as well.

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