By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

The Ron Borges imbroglio continues unabated today with Deadspin having two separate posts on the matter including a somewhat baffling email from a Borges “colleague.”

Now, as we predicted yesterday, other possible cut-and-pastes are being rumored, including this one that began circulating on the web on Monday. The same text is found at nbcsports.com and credited with “Courtesy of the Sports Xchange,” which we believe to be the “pool” that Borges was “swimming in” when he lifted the words of the Tacoma News Tribune’s Mike Sando. (Note that the (un)original Borges column from Sunday now has a disclaimer at its top.)

In this case with the Khayat note, Borges did add what we assume to be his own sentence, but the first two sentences are once again almost verbatim. It’s certainly not as egregious as the original finding, but it does send up more red flags and should immediately set the wheels in motion (if they’re not already) for a full investigation by the Boston Globe into the body of Borges’s work. Anything less would send a message that the Globe is not taking this as seriously as they should be.

. . . We’ve just returned from the road and we tolerated about 200 seconds of “The Big Show” on WEEI 850 AM, where the issue appears to be deteriorating into an assault on Borges from the yappers who have always had problems with his anti-Belichick schtick. It would be too much to expect the Big O and the Meathead to actually attack the issue of Borges committing the sin of all sins in journalism: plagiarism. Take away whatever feelings you have for Borges (as hard as that may be) and the essence of the matter is that Borges committed a journalistic crime of the highest order.

But the most shocking thing we’ve been able to pick up in the two hours since we returned from Richmond (aside from Who’s Better Than Butchy Stearns’s misguided defense of Borges) is how awfully the Globe handled the announcement of the suspension.

There is not one mention of the incident in the Tuesday Sports section where, of course, Borges’ work has appeared. Instead, the Globe runs a “correction” on A2 and then has the Michael Paulson story on B2.

There’s no excuse for not, at the very least, directing readers from the sports section to the B2 story. More appropriately the paper should have had a note from sports editor Joe Sullivan in the sports section explaining that a veteran writer had committed the worst infraction a journalist can perpetrate on his readers.

. . . We did hear back from The Tacoma News Tribune’s Deputy Managing Editor Dale Phelps and here is the content of our email exchange:

SHOTS: I’m wondering if you have any comment on the Ron Borges story that is circulating (Monday)?

PHELPS: I don’t really have much comment other than what I’ve said to a few other sources. I think it’s an unfortunate situation. Beyond that it’s really The Globe’s to deal with. We don’t have any quarrel with anyone. I trust that the Globe made a decision appropriate to its standards.

SHOTS: I saw where one explanation was that Mike and Ron share membership in a writers’ exchange website or message board. I’m wondering if A) this is true and B) what are the “rules” are for that group?

PHELPS: Sando and other football writers from papers around the country exchange information throughout the year via e-mail. We have writers on similar networks in baseball and basketball. It’s a convenience that prevents 30–40 reporters from having to call each other every week.

Whatever “rules” that would apply would be the same as for any source of information. We would expect writers to identify the source of anything that is not the result of original reporting. I’d want us to have a conversation about anything that is questionable.

SHOTS: In your opinion, was what Ron did plagiarism?

PHELPS: I don’t know Ron nor am I privy to the fact set The Globe considered. I’ll let their conclusion speak for itself.

SHOTS: If you were his editor, what would be your reaction?

PHELPS: Again, not fully knowing the facts the Globe considered, it’s hard to prejudge a situation.

SHOTS: Has Ron been in contact with you or Mike over the past 24 hours?

PHELPS: I don’t know Ron and have not spoken to him.

. . . As we reported yesterday Borges was scheduled to appear on CN8’s Boston-origination 11 p.m. “Out of Bounds” tonight, but his Globe broadcast appearance ban will prevent that from happening.

. . . The chief beneficiary - if you can call it that - from all of this will be the diligent Mike Reiss who is scheduled to take over the Sunday NFL Notes during Borges’s absence, according to a Shots Globe sports desk source.

. . . The bottom line on all of this? Borges’ reputation is forever ruined. Readers will be skeptical of almost everything he writes and colleagues will never look at him the same way. He will wear the Scarlet Letter of “P” for all his remaining days. We aren’t the ones to judge whether this is right or wrong, but it’s simply the way it will be. Borges will certainly work again - if not at the Globe, somewhere - but he will never escape the specter of this sad circumstance.

. . . Anyone care to guess at the number of Borges’ peers who are shaking in their writing booties after having done similar cut-and-pastes over the years? We’re guessing there’s at least one writer at every major sports section in the country who has dabbled in this practice in the past. And we can think of at least two on the Globe desk who might not stand a test of originality.

As one esteemed area writer surmised to us: “There’s just too much going on for [these guys] between radio, TV and what have you for them to be fully effective as writers. And that leads to shortcuts and laziness.”

It reminds us of the Washington Post’s (not the Herald’s, as USA Today’s Michael McCarthy stated falsely in his Monday column) Howard Bryant’s oft-used quote: “I’ve never heard of a writer who got better by doing less writing.”

Amen.