When you get behind the wheel of a car you need to be responsible as to how you drive. If not you can get pulled over. The same is true of journalism. Journalists need to be responsible in their approach to their trade. Earlier this month Ryan Quinn wrote an article that was printed in the Charleston Gazette Mail accusing Senator Patricia Rucker of plagiarism. Out of context, that sounds like a serious charge and it can be. But within the context of what Quinn alleges, it is much ado about nothing, unless Mr. Quinn would like to accuse me of plagiarizing Shakespeare.

I wrote a letter to the editor and submitted it to the Gazette Mail expressing my views on this matter and the newspaper refused to print it. Failure to print an opposing view is not responsible journalism. So in the spirit of the driving offenses on the books in many states pertaining to careless or reckless driving, I am hereby presenting a citizen’s citation to Ryan Quinn and the Gazette Mail for careless or reckless journalism. I feel confident that Mr. Quinn is aware of what careless driving entails.

Below is my letter to the editor that the Gazette Mail refused to print:

We all use expressions like “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over” - or - “to thine own self be true”. They appear in print all the time without attribution. We quote from the Bible all the time without even knowing it. We repeat things we hear. We absorb things from what we read and it becomes part of the public discourse in which we participate and engage.

Ryan Quinn recently accused Senator Patricia Rucker of plagiarism. Now plagiarism is a serious issue. It’s important in academic and literary circles. In the world of op-ed and opinion blogs perhaps not so much. If you publish an academic paper that includes significant and consequential aspects of someone else’s work or if you publish a song that duplicates another person’s inspiration you might wind up in court. The accuser/plaintiff would then have to prove that the person knowingly used their work and did so for their own personal profit.

I might also point out that state legislatures routinely take legislation and copy it word for word from bills passed in other states. They do so without permission or attribution. No one gets sued for copyright infringement and there are no accusations of plagiarism. It’s simply how the whole thing works.

In the world of op-ed, opinions are like belly buttons. We all have one and we contemplate them often. In looking at that one paragraph that offends Mr. Quinn regarding the Tidioute Charter School I have this to say. While the paragraphs are essentially the same, the information contained in each can be found by going to the Wikipedia website at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidioute,_Pennsylvania, the town of Tidioute website at https://www.tidioute.org , and the school website at https://tidioutecharter.com.

In other words, there is nothing earth shaking in either paragraph. They are simple statements of facts. What is earthshaking is something that Ryan Quinn missed entirely. His focus was so narrow in trying to pin a “gotcha” on a state legislator that he clearly has it in for, that he missed the broader and bigger picture. The real story. And the story is a bona fide “scoop”.

The paragraph written by Laura Gelles appeared in her opinion piece posted on the Progressive Policy Institute website whose meme is “radically pragmatic”. They state on their site that they started as the “home of the New Democrat” and earned a reputation as being President Clinton’s “idea mill”. Senator Patricia Rucker is a conservative. A Republican.

The article that Laura Gelles wrote was entitled: Community Responsive Rural Charter Schools as a 21st Century Solution to School Consolidation. In it she says that by not passing SB 451 (the Comprehensive Education Reform legislation, whose lead sponsor is Senator Patricia Rucker), West Virginia missed an opportunity to address the problem of rural school consolidation. Ms. Geller advocates for rural charter schools.

Sadly, Ryan Quinn missed an opportunity to report to us that these two women that are very different in their world views, perhaps even “radically” different, were able to find common ground. When it comes to education reform, they appear to have the basis for agreement. At least on some points. That could be the start a beautiful relationship. That is something to celebrate. We need more of that in today’s world.