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WBZ's Keller hit on lack of attribution

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

http://bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1038840#articleFull

Today's Herald has a Jessica Heslam article which mentions how Jon Keller's new book "The Bluest State" has "almost three dozen instances of direct quotes and other material lifted from numerous newspaper articles without any attribution"

Keller works for WBZ TV and radio and contributes to the Herald. The article says that 2,000 copies of
the book have been sold (I bought one myself but lent it to a friend!) Jessica notes that the book
doesn't have footnotes or chapter notes, and Keller had said his editor had told him he didn't need any.
 
Full disclosure: I wrote a positive review of the book on the Red Mass Group website last month. http://redmassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=545

Having said that, will anybody even remember this "controversy" a month from now? Maybe I've developed a new fondness for conspiracy theories, but why do I suspect that media people who either can't stand Keller's perceived politics or think he's a jerk are now going out of their way to discredit him--first with the odd stories about his supposed failure to disclose his son's involvement with the Ogonowski campaign (when he disclosed that information on his WBZ blog months ago) and now this?
 
it's OK... I'll wait for it to hit the remainder table. Interesting, though--the Herald article, that is. Also, I wonder if Emily will have him on Beat The Press tomorrow to discuss it or if they'll even cover it, considering he's a semi-regular on the show.
 
Yeah you'd think the Herald would be squashing a story like this but who knows (for that matter they
did print some unflattering stuff about "Muffy Healey" in the waning days of the campaign, so for
anyone saying they're a GOP mouthpiece...) A news story, and they wanted to trumpet it,
nevertheless.
Keller is indeed to the right (something you wouldn't expect in the Commonwealth, but conservatives DO
exist) and he almost sounds like a Dennis Miller type of conservative (lib/mod on a couple issues but to
those on the left he may as well be far right for daring to suggest fiscal responsibility, etc.)

But I'm just being fair and balanced (OK stop laughing) in pointing out the charges here...and Keller did
say that his editor told him he didn't have to include footnotes/bibliography/chapter notes. (Some books
I've seen have included so many chapter notes that what you think is a 346 page book turns out to be
more like 290, the rest being attribution and clarifications!)
I saved $5 on mine for having a Border's card btw.

Yes, maybe people won't remember this in a month (and it's not as serious as plagiarism...Mr.
Barnicle...though writers do consider it serious) Whether "Howie's secretary" (is Nancy Sterling not the only mouthpiece for him? :) )
is trying to discredit Keller, I don't know (it could even be a way to get free publicity for the book!)
They did indeed pick up on the fact that his son worked for Ogonowski ("a Republican getting elected
in this state? Quick, consult the General Laws--that HAS to be illegal!" :) ) but he did disclose it.
It is an interesting book, the MA version of "What's The Matter With Kansas"...t
 
the odd stories
Click to expand...
There was nothing odd about the story. It was only odd in the dumb schtick he used to explain things. Brevity would have sufficed.
Keller is one of those select few, over which a cadre of supposed insiders will exclaim, 'he's good.' But there never seems to be any evidence of "good." The Brudnoy connection served him very well.
I would rate him a poor third behind Hiller and Battenfeld (what do these 3 have in common?)
 
Jon was the topic of discussion on Friday's "Beat The Press" for not only the attribution problem but for not getting ahead of the story behind the story that his son, Barney, was a paid employee of the Farmer Ogonowski campaign.

Jon really came out unscathed on both accounts by the panel - of which he is often one and they noted that.

As to the attribution problem the panel blamed his publisher more than they blamed Keller. Still, Emily said he could have avoided the problem with a short opening paragraph noting the information in the book came from a number of sources including his own reporting. He did not do that.
 
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