By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

It’s really pretty simple once you choose to be a professional journalist. You accept the reponsibility of reporting the news or commenting on it and your lone charge from the journalism Gods is that you submit your own, unique, factually correct work. In short, your (written) word, is your bond to your readers.

The Boston Globe’s Ron Borges broke his bond and his employers broke theirs as well by letting Borges off with what amounts to a forceful slap on the wrist.

Yes, two months without pay will take some food off Borges’ table, but the only acceptable action by the Globe higher-ups (Martin Baron and Joe Sullivan to name two) should have been the termination of their lightning rod columnist. Further, the in-house announcement specifies that Borges cannot make “broadcast appearances over the next two months,” but there is no word on whether Borges is allowed to maintain his MSNBC.com presence or his relationship with HBO.com.

It would seem that Borges has stored up years of good will because of his long tenure at the paper. Heaven help him, though, if it’s discovered that this was not an isolated incident (as was the case in the Ken Powers case, referenced below.)

. . . We did send an email to Borges’ AOL account requesting comment and/or clarification on what transpired, but we have not yet heard back from him. There are very few explanations that we can even imagine as being justifiable for stealing such large chunks of material, but we did at least give Borges the opportunity to offer his side of the story. It’s likely he’s under a gag order from the Globe.

. . . Shots has been told that Borges was scheduled to make his regular appearance on CN8’s 11 p.m. “Out of Bounds” on Tuesday night, but is now not expected to be on the show. (DISCLAIMER: Shots is a regular guest on the show and will be appearing on Wednesday evening.)

. . . We’re also a bit dumbfounded by the union rep’s quote that “The Boston Newspaper Guild stands behind Ron and the high-quality work he has done for the Globe over the years. We will work on his behalf to see that justice is served in this matter.”

“Justice is served?” Justice gets served when a rapist is imprisoned. Justice is served when the ENRON bozos get jail time.

Justice doesn’t get served when a writer steals, almost verbatim, from another writer, unless the writer doing the stealing is relieved of his duties.

[Shots contacted the writer, Mike Sando, from the Tacoma News Tribune, but he cordially asked us to contact his editor, Dale Phelps, which we did. Phelps has not yet returned our email, but he is quoted in the AP story, which will surely get widely circulated.]

. . . The muscle of the Boston Newspaper Guild is clearly at work here as they would likely cause a firestorm if Borges were let go entirely from the paper. We’d like to suggest, if that’s the case, that the Globe should have given the two month suspension and then hit Borges with further sanctions including, but not limited to:

* When Borges returns, he should be demoted to a General Assignment (GA) role during a probationary period to ensure he has “learned his lesson.”

* His notes columns (both boxing and football) should be stripped from him for no less than six months. Let him earn his way back to the high profile notes spaces.

* Borges should be on “double secret probation” for one year’s time and be required to submit fact-checking material for each and every article he submits during that period.

Maybe all of this sounds harsh and maybe Borges would say, “take this job and shove it.” So be it. If he doesn’t take his transgression seriously, then he shouldn’t be on staff. Plagiarism is the malpractice of journalism.

. . . The Globe should also have a staff-wide refresher course on the standards they have in place for making sure that incidents like this don’t happen. They can start by circulating this document.

. . . Here’s an excellent re-cap of plagiarism scandals from across the country.

. . . We have to admit that our real life duties have taken us away from Boston (we’re currently in Richmond, Va.), but form what we’ve heard from back home, WEEI was ALL over the Borges story on Monday, to the point where the Patriots blockbuster signings are being overshadowed. I have to say that I’m quite happy I haven’t been forced to listen to bastions of journalism like Pete Meat Sheppard or Glenn Ordway pontificate their views on the matter.

. . . Here’s a look at what some of the Blogosphere was saying about the Borges Blunder:

- New York Hate of Mind

- Media 4 All

- Dan Kennedy

. . . Let’s not forget this is not our first time down this road in this market with a plagiaristic football writer. Check out the Ken Powers saga from two years ago. And here as well.

Ironically, we’re told by a prominent local football writer, that Borges was one of Powers’ biggest supporters when he was going through his own difficulties. Not so sure who’s going to be leaping to the defense of Borges.

We’ve already mentioned (on Monday) the Hartford Courant’s Ken Davis incident from 2003.

The good news from Borges out of the Davis fiasco is that Davis still regularly finds people willing to use his writings, including, of course, MSNBC.com. And he’s even won writers’ association awards since the incident in 2003.

. . . Some of this goes the belief that Borges may be a bit lazy in his efforts to fill his notebooks. We are reminded of his sloppiness in his attempts to cover the UFC when he had several inaccuracies in a Boxing notes column.