Maybe I missed it before... but the article now credits Newsday as the original source. Earlier I read the article and left a comment, just after 8 pm our time, 1 am GMT. That comment and another that was left about half an hour before mine were removed. The comments were critical of the fact that the article was sourced w/o proper attribution.
I believe what happened is that Mr. McKay removed the comments without looking at the evidence (a link was posted directing him to this thread, proving this was the original source) and instead credited Newsday, since in his mind... I guess, that was the more 'credible' source. After all, why believe some website... the Newspaper wouldn't be so bold as to plagiarize an article, would it?
Anyways... I sent him a nice email... and also sent the following to newsday@newsday.co.tt
Your newspaper was given permission to use this article provided that you made proper attribution to the original source... instead, in a blatant act of plagiarism the article is now running on your website without properly crediting the source. This article was lifted verbatim from the www.socawarriors.net website, where it was originally posted by site administrator Inshan "Flex" Mohammed. Mr. Mohammed gave permission for you to use the material, provided he gave credit where credit was due. Obviously this was not done.
Here is a link to the original article, posted a full two days before your newspaper carried the story
http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=50731.0
To make matters worse, the article was then co-opted from your website and used by another source http://www.insideworldfootball.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8441:trinidad-and-tobago-still-will-not-pay-bonuses-predicts-jack&catid=50:central-a-north-america&Itemid=62 . With credit going to your newspaper, rather than to the author, Mr. Mohammed.
Mr. Mohammed and the other administrators and moderators do a thankless job of taking the time to interview our footballing heroes and to otherwise shepherd support for the team. If the name Jason Blair isn't yet familiar to you I suggest you do an internet search on him, viz-a-viz his time spent at the New York Times... I would hate to see Mr. Bailey bring similar disrepute to your newspaper. I don't propose to speak for Mr. Mohammed, but it would only be right that your newspaper properly attribute your non-original sources.
Thank you
I started to buss Joel Bailey's files (note in the email I mention "he" and "Mr. Bailey"... I overlooked those in removing the references before sending it) ... but I wasn't sure that he was the one who posted it without giving credit. I started sending a link to his posts for Newsday to see his professional display in full glory but opted against it, because again, I dunno if it was him who Flex sent the article to. As you can see there's a link for the good folks at Newsday (and Mr. McKay as well) to come see that the article was posted here a full 2 days before Newsday ran it on their site. So knowing that they'll likely be here reading this... I'll refrain from outing Mr. Bailey by linking him to his screen name... for now.
Flex... if he is the one responsible for posting this on the Newsday site then I think we need to raise that with his employers. His unprofessional display here notwithstanding, plagiarism by ANY journalist (even by TnT's shoddy standards) cannot be tolerated.
Newsday themselves, if they fail to take corrective action need to be reported to whatever oversight body there might be in TnT... or to their peers, if shaming is the best recourse.