Tony Phyrillas of The Pottstown Mercury lives in Mt. Penn and has been writing for the paper and his blog for some time. You'd think he'd know it isn't proper to "borrow" other people's material without crediting them or linking to the original work which is a serious blogging standard practice. Bernie O'Hare of Lehigh Valley Ramblings did some Googling of some of Phyrillas' recent work and caught him plagiarizing. As if that wasn't bad enough he then caught him trying to obfuscate the fact he used someone else's material, posted it under his own byline without attribution, then tried palming it off as just one of those anonymous email things that get passed around.
Well Tony you cannot, as a journalist or a blogger, do that. If you do not know who wrote something you'd like to put on your blog try going to Google and finding the author. Then try contacting them for permission to publish their work on your blog. Not doing so, you know, can, umm, get you sued. I receive stuff all the time and I've never posted someone's writing on my blog without first asking for their permission, even when they sent it to me unsolicited. I want there to be no question I asked for and received their express permission to use their material. Then I identify the author and tag it as a "guest writer."
I'm always willing to publish someone else's creative work but I also always credit them for their work. Not doing so is plagiarism. As much as I enjoy some of those "email thingys" that make the rounds I have never posted one of them on my blogs? Why? Who knows who wrote them and how do you find them and get permission? Most times it's impossible.
Phyrillas's journalistic ethics have also been questioned because he is running for public office in Mt. Penn. Newspaper publishers aren't supposed to be personally involved in partisan politics.
Tony tried to ridicule me for predicting mark Scott would lose the GOP primary. He ignored the fact I predicted the exact order of finish in the Reading mayoral race though. I don't worry what publishers of rags like The Pottstown Mercury have to say about me. After all, he probably stole that line from someone else. I grew up outside Pottstown and that newspaper hasn't been good for anything but dog training for fifty years. The more things change the more they stay the same.
If people are going to try and pose as serious bloggers they should know the conventions of blogging. This means using reputable sources, always linking to your sources, and disclosing conflicts of interest or past associations. I put all that on my bio and "about" pages so it's readily accessible to readers. The absolute worst things you can do are to steal someone else's work or someone else's traffic. After Phyrillas got caught by Bernie instead of acknowledging he'd stolen the material he simply added a memo that it came from an email. He neglected to add the memo as an identified update so someone visiting his blog after he got caught wouldn't be aware he'd been caught plagiarizing the work.
I suppose we had to fear such dumbing down of the blogosphere once the mainstream media joined the fray.
Update: I noticed a picture Phyrillas posted on his blog that wasn't attributed to anyone so I assumed it belonged to him. Then I noticed it on several other blogs and they didn't source it to Tony so I got curious. I did a quick Google Images search and found the source of the copyrighted picture here. It only took me about five minutes total. I wonder what part of "copyright" Tony Phyrillis doesn't understand or the fact this site clearly requires links back to it if you use their images as fair use? I bet if I took one of The Mercury's copyrighted photos and used it without their permission or without credit or a link I'd get in big trouble. The website which is the source of the picture has this message clearly posted:
Some material on our website, such as any work marked "All rights reserved," is not available for use. Please respect the owners of these images. As noted below, we can often give you information to get permission directly from the copyright owner if needed.
We ask that you give credit to the source and www.sewerhistory.org for any materials you use.
I like reading Bernie's blog. He has good stories and interesting discussions. I also like A Big Fat Slob. Of course, I'm always partial to the Pa Progressive... :-)
Tony should know better than to plagiarize. We only start teaching that to students in 5th and 6th grade.
Posted by: Melissa | July 30, 2007 at 07:37 PM
Aren't you assuming he got that far?
Posted by: John Morgan | July 30, 2007 at 07:58 PM
LOL! Was he a child left behind? :-)
Posted by: Melissa | July 30, 2007 at 10:08 PM
Who knows? Perusing his "blog" there doesn't seem to be much of anything that's original, though he publishes all of it as if it's his. The entire blog seems to be an exercise in plagiarism and copyright infringement.
Is this guy REALLY a legitimate newspaperman??? Wait, he works for The Mercury so that's a rhetorical question.
Posted by: John Morgan | July 30, 2007 at 10:55 PM
"The new BlogNetNews.com Top 20 list of "Pennsylvania's Most Influential Political blogs" is out and Tony Phyrillas has reached No. 3 on the list (No 1 if you count just conservative blogs)."
First and foremost, let me attribute the above quote to Tony's blog from a link on LVR. See, attribution is not so difficult. ;-)
Now, talk about self-aggrandizement! ****I'd be number one if we could just do away with all of those meddling leftist blogs!"**** ROTFL!
Posted by: Melissa | July 31, 2007 at 09:27 AM
Maybe Blognet needs a stipulation that each blog must be at least 50% original material.
Posted by: John Morgan | July 31, 2007 at 03:14 PM
John, Wow! I think I'll plagiarize your post. It's pretty damn good.
Posted by: Bernie OHare | July 31, 2007 at 07:59 PM
LOL
Posted by: John Morgan | July 31, 2007 at 09:48 PM
The picture is not copyrighted and that website is not the original source. It was first posted on WNEP then was photoshopped adding the politicians/voters signs and was passed around by email. It's in the public domain so attribution is not necessary.
Posted by: Gort | August 02, 2007 at 01:45 AM
OK, but the website does say he should link to them if using the picture.
Posted by: John Morgan | August 02, 2007 at 08:40 AM
Do you have a job? Maybe you should get one instead of sitting on your fat ass all day and night criticizing everyone who isn't a believer of your idiotic thoughts! Shouldn't a person of your advanced age be concerned about being so overweight? In case no one has brought this to your attention, you are a big, fat slop! You should shut your big fat pie hole and spend some quality time on that fat ass of yours! Stop blathering about the moronic ideas you dream up and pick up that bar of soap. SCRUB, b*tch, SCRUB!!!!
Posted by: phatkat | August 04, 2007 at 04:00 PM
Well, I see you have a lot of constructive, intelligent facts to add to the discourse. This issue is about copyright infringement, plagiarism and stealing other people's work. Do I assume you then have no problems with that?
Posted by: John Morgan | August 04, 2007 at 05:29 PM