Why Did The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Steal from CNN?

(I'm back in business)

The July 16th edition of the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint newspaper had a front-page article entitled "Grandson of Slaves: Obama is Our Moses." This impressive story was an interview with a Black gentleman named Mr. James Presley, 78, of Sledge, Mississippi. Mr. Presley's grandparents were slaves in ante-bellum Mississippi. The article includes:

"He's lived a raw-knuckled life where hope moved at a molasses-slow pace. The last time he had hope for a better future was four decades ago -- first with President John F. Kennedy and then with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr."

"'I'm a church man,' he says. 'And I kind of figured that this here is about like it was with Moses with the children of Israel. On that day, when he gets to be president, we're all going to be rejoicing.'

"Does he have plans to celebrate on Inauguration Day?"

Huh? Plans to celebrate on Inauguration Day?

The presidential inauguration happened on Tuesday, January 20 did it not or did I miss something? Is this is a Gary Coleman "Whatchu-talkin'-'bout-Willis" moment? The edition-in-question of the newspaper was Thursday, July 16 -- six months later. Old news is old news. Why publish six-month-old news on the front page where current news is printed?

I did some internet research. I was saddened to discover that the "Obama is Our Moses" article was actually from the website CNN.com (Cable News Network) from a Monday, January 12, 2009 article called "Grandson of Slaves: Obama is Our Moses," written by CNN.com Senior Producer Wayne Drash (http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/12/grandson.of.slaves/index.html). A condensed version of the article printed in the Voice & Viewpoint was copied word-for-word from the CNN website. The slugline on the website's article had "SLEDGE, Mississippi (CNN)" The slugline in the Voice & Viewpoint article had "SLEDGE, Mississippi" with no reference to CNN at all. Also that CNN article included: "As the nation prepares for Obama's inauguration on January 20, CNN.com traveled to Sledge, Mississippi, a forgotten town of about 500 people in the heart of the Mississippi Delta that some consider to be the birthplace of blues in America." The Voice & Viewpoint omitted that sentence.

The Voice & Viewpoint committed one of the worst of the cardinal sins of journalism -- plagiarism. I used to be the editor of the San Diego County Times, a small community newspaper. Not only would I have not edited copy for news that was six-weeks old as if it was current news, much less six-months old, but I would NEVER have edited copy without giving proper attribution to the source and without getting written permission from the source to publish such material. My Publisher would have gotten quite upset with me had I committed such errors. I would have damaged the credibility of my newspaper, damaged my own credibility, and ruined my relationship with the publishers. The two worst cardinal sins in journalism are 1. creating fictional news stories as if they were real, and 2. publishing stories from another source without giving proper credit -- plagiarism.

Why did the Voice & Viewpoint steal from CNN?

When I told a black friend in Los Angeles about that Voice & Viewpoint article, his opinion was that "they're running scared" concerning President Barack Obama's popularity. Obama's approval ratings have been rapidly declining, particularly among the independents who voted for him. Obama-themed items such as buttons and t-shirts are becoming unpopular, a number of those t-shirts being donated to thrift stores. Much of the American antiwar movement that optimistically hoped for change from the Bush administration's policies in Iraq and Afghanistan soured on the current president. They complain of no fundamental change in the Obama administration's war policies, and they openly oppose the president after once supporting him. Senior citizens are now getting unexpected cuts in their Supplemental Security Income (SSI). An ordained minister, a senior citizen in the San Diego-area, whose SSI was recently cut by approximately $200 monthly and whose Medicare benefits have been recently cut says that God allowed Obama to be elected to "punish America." There is also much suspicion and growing pessimism about his "healthcare reform" ideas. Many who voted for Obama have complained that his promise of jobs, courtesy of the "stimulus" package, has not come to fruition especially when hundreds of thousands of people are still losing jobs all across the United States. The national unemployment rate was 9.4% in July 2009, (California 11.6% in June 2009) according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (That figure does not include the currently unemployed whose benefits have run out or the currently unemployed who never qualified for benefits.) Frustrated voters ask "Where are the jobs?" when jobs were promised. And Obama's recent response to the Dr. Henry Louis Gates arrest in Cambridge, Massachusetts was not helpful either, especially hen a Cambridge black policewoman publicly stated that she would not vote for Obama any more. A black man who voted for Obama in the Seattle area said that the president "lost all credibility" with him over that incident and over the lack of "change" that was promised. Others have told me of other black voters who regret voting for Obama.

That is not positive news for the president. The "change" is strange and the "hope" is nope. (Last November 9, a black writer originally from Chicago predicted at a public forum in Los Angeles "You will get better change from a Coke machine than you will get from Obama.") Why did the Voice & Viewpoint steal from CNN? Perhaps as a newspaper serving the Black Community in San Diego it felt that it needed to give President Obama a boost of solid support and a certain measure of celebration despite his growing unpopularity, even among Black voters. Could it be that this newspaper is "circling the wagons" around Obama by printing someting positive and ignoring the negative news? I can understand wanting to support the president. As a former newspaper editor, I can even understand and respect any newspaper's legal right to print any news it chooses and to omit any news it chooses. But to commit blatent plagiarism to support President Obama crosses the line of ethics, crosses the line of journalistic integrity and damages the credibility of the Voice & Viewpoint, in my opinion.

(The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint has not responded to this writer's July 30th inquiry on this matter.)