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Gila... Tak pergi universiti ke Brendan ni? Kalau universiti USA, lama dah kena buang sekolah.

Tak malu betul ke meniru kerja orang lain? Mana etika professional?

No wonder NST tak laku dah, takde idea sendiri.

Yes, it's definitely plagiarism - clear as daylight. Look at the way Brendan structures his sentences by starting them with "we miss..." He should do the honourable thing: resign. Or get the boot.

Yes, it's definitely plagiarism - clear as daylight. Look at the way Brendan structures his sentences by starting them with "we miss..." He should do the honourable thing: resign. Or get the boot.

Today is the third anniversary of Pak Lah's leadership. Wonder if the EICs is having a spin field day today? The Star has already sent their proxy.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/10/31/nation/15860901&sec=nation

Unbelievable. Shameful.

That's an all time low for NST. Just when I thought NST couldn't stoop any lower.

NST have ceased from being a respectable newspaper that I read when I was growing up. Small wonder their readership is deteriorating.

I wouldn't say it is plagiarism. However, he's the number 2 in NST - don't tell me all these while he has never learned to write on his own, compose his articles on its own without having to copy a style of another journalist?

That's just appalling, to say the least. Then again, what can we expect from such a person who goes all out to spin for the people who put him in his place?

I guess when you've sold your soul, there's really no need for you to stand up for your own journalistic ethics since now, anything goes.

I miss the NST bwfore Brendan and Kali

I miss VK Chin before Ops Lallang

I miss

I miss

I miss.

Shame on u Brendan. Where are you going to hide with plagiarism like that?

Hie Jeff.
Tried to email the article to mitch albom, to see how flattered he is, but could not get thru. Do you know a way that we could send this article to him so to alert him that he got an admirer from Malaysia !

Shame, just gave you a rating of 1 LOW out of 5. In fact, if I have the choice, I will choose 0.

Shame on you. Belum makan pagi ke?

i had sent in a complaint to Mitch Albom at http://www.albom.com/contact.html

People who say it is not plagiarism does not understand what plagiarism means, and how serious it is in academic world.

The punishment for a simple plagiarism of a simple essay in Freshman English 101 can be expulsion from university and banned from any university in the States.

It is that serious.

Tapi kat Malaysia ni tradisi tiru meniru satu perkara biasa.

Brendon ! You are EXPOSED! CAUGHT RED-HANDED ! SMAME ON YOU ! You better pack and Go! We just hate to see you around! Tak Malu !

this is not plagiarize. This is a RESEARCH. I did this a lot of times during university days, hehehe.

It's a crying shame. And we talked about how unethical tertiary level students plagiarising works of others from the internet. He is the supposedly creme-de-la-creme of Malaysia's media world, widely connected and highly influential & supposedly trained and learnt his stocks from Singapore...

A crying shame really. Now, I really miss "integrity"...

Ayo yo Brenden where you gonna run & hide yourself.

You aint no journalist. You're a plagiarist.

Shame, shame, shame on you!

Hey "sonicwall" I did the very same thing!

Hope BP stews and kena the boot!

I also sent Mitch a complaint via this link (as posted by SonicWall)
http://www.albom.com/contact.html

Since Jalan Riong ban screenshot, I wonder whether Brenda has exclusive right to access it?
Just wonder what will those "editorial" monster blogger say. ;)

azharif: I agree. Dulu when the country was younger the NST upheld its journalistic standards. I myself refused to believe what the naysayers said about Brendan and thought very highly of him. But this post is either a HUGE mistake born of a late night and a lack of time, or final proof that Brendan is really the spin doctor his critics have painted him to be.

auyongtc: Exactly. Brendan cannot have ascended to such a high position without having some functioning brain cells of his own. Or at least I don't think so. Maybe this is a one-time offense. Maybe he had too much to drink the night before and had to send in an article while drunk, leading to him ripping off Mitch Albom. Though I wonder, did he think Malaysians have never heard of Albom when his books are bestsellers in MPH?

Howsy,
My opinion... At least DENISON JAYASOORIA doesn't sound like spinning for Pak Lah. Instead, he makes it like he's sending the PM a reminder to get above the spin, and finish the job that he started.

This is a very difficult and nebulous area - establishing plagiarism these days is hard because wholesale plagiarism is rare these days. In an academic context, plagiarism usually refers to lifting or copying of other people's work - such as journal articles and scholarly works - without attributing it correctly. In artistic plagiarism, it could relate to style, or perhaps sentence structure, or a certain way of expressing things. The case of the Harvard student, Kaavya Viswanathan, who was accused to plagiarism of another author's work, for her own book is a good example. In that instance (check the Harvard Crimson for the comparison) the plagiarism was quite clear when the comparisons were done because whole sentences, down to structure were lifted.

The focus of plagiarism (whether academic or creative plagiarism) is not that you copied it, but that you passed it off as your OWN. So, using that as the context...

In defense of Brendan Pereira, it could be said that his op-ed was 'inspired by' the piece by Mitch Albom and that he merely copied certain 'style' attributes of the piece. Perhaps he was on a deadline and 'inadvertantly' recalled the style of the piece and thought it would work.

Or perhaps he was just plain lazy - which is usually the reason why people plagiarise. And it might have just been that he thought - it's such an obscure article, in a paper probably no Malaysian reads - who's going to know? (another typical thought that plagiarists usually comfort themselves with)

Here's the difference: Smart writers don't plagiarise, they 'pay tribute'. It is true that when you want to steal, steal from the great masters. But smart writers steal and make it better, so the work eventually becomes their own. (think Tarantino). Copycats only know how to lift something, without making it better or truly their own.

Pity he forgot to add the bit about 'tribute' and 'inspired by'. Because that would have made it clear he was a smart writer, instead of a hack.

In a time when we're busy trying to make examples of wrongdoers and the people at the top are trying to restore wrecked values, nothing could do more for the credibility of the NST as a publication, and the profession of journalism in this country, which is not above stealing from the Internet (even the Star has done so) and badly written stories, than for Brendan Pereira to be SACKED. Like the NY Times sacked Jayson Blair, who fabricated stories.

And so...with apologies to Mitch Albom and regards to Brendan Pereira:

I miss the days when newspapers understood the meaning of investigative journalism, rather than the language of advertising dollars.

I miss the days when I looked forward to reading the newspaper, rather than regarding it as a waste of money and kitty litter tray liner at best.

I miss the days when integrity was the hallmark of a journalist, and sensationalism was something that came out of the pages of The Sun (UK).

Oh wait a minute...there never were such days.Ever.

Are you guys serious?

"I don't believe Brendan will ever plagiarise Albom because Albom is too famous to be plagiarised.".

That's exactly the point.

Similarly, there are many aticles around that mimic the propose of the famous speech "I have a Dream" by Dr.Marti Luther King. These articles are trying to pay a tribute to a legendary expression.

All 18 commentators here, including Jeff himself, has failed to see the differece between Mimicry and plagiarism.

"Mimicry" may copy the propose or the style, but the meaning could be completely different. "Plagiarism" is a copy-and-paste, including the content itself.

I suggest you guys have a look at the movie Scarry Movie 4. And please be mad at the movie, and write complaint letters to Oprah Winfery or Tom Cruise, and many other people, to complain about Plagiarism!

Hi Malaysia,
Spare a thought for a poor guy trying to cari makan ...........we should all be open and listen to both sides of the argument but in this case he is putting up his opined effects of having this argument using Albom's style .By the way is Albom of Jewish descent ?

I just posted a comment to Mitch: "Congratulation, Mr Albom, for the well written article. It was so good that our nation's top newspaper, The News Straits Time, editor in chief deemed it fit to plagiarize, almost words for words for his column entitled: How dearly we miss June 6. For the first time, I am ashamed of being a Malaysian!

@stevetan76 "Mimicry not plagiarsm"

At first view, it does look like its a parody (not sure if this is the correct term) of Mitch Albom column. But no where in Brendan's column does it credit Albom. It's fair to say that Brendan just copy and paste and change a few words to suit his presentation.

I am not familiar with Mitch Albom. I would have thought this was written by Brendan himself if not for this expose.

Good catch, Jeff, really good catch.

The evidence appears solid and damning. Looks like he's fried, one way or the other.

There must be a good pantun about this whole thing.

Read this defination of plagiarism if you think that brendan's article is merely mimicry:-

Plagiarism, defination..

The act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one's own creation.

Plagiarism is theft of another person's writings or ideas. Generally, it occurs when someone steals expressions from another author's composition and makes them appear to be his own work. Plagiarism is not a legal term; however, it is often used in lawsuits. Courts recognize acts of plagiarism as violations of copyright law, specifically as the theft of another creator's intellectual property. Because copyright law allows a variety of creative works to be registered as the property of their owners, lawsuits alleging plagiarism can be based on the appropriation of any form of writing, music, and visual images.

Plagiarism can take a broad range of forms. At its simplest and most extreme, plagiarism involves putting one's own name on someone else's work; this is commonly seen in schools when a student submits a paper that someone else has written. Schools, colleges, and universities usually have explicit guidelines for reviewing and punishing plagiarism by students and faculty members. In copyright lawsuits, however, allegations of plagiarism are more often based on partial theft. It is not necessary to exactly duplicate another's work in order to infringe a copyright: it is sufficient to take a substantial portion of the copyrighted material. Thus, for example, plagiarism can include copying language or ideas from another novelist, basing a new song in large part on another's musical composition, or copying another artist's drawing or photograph.

For Gurindam Jiwa, pantun 2 kerat;-) :

Bilis senohong gelama ikan parang,
Tulis bohong lama2 jadi ketua pengarang.

Brendan

Let us see if you can display a far better characterisation of a Malaysian (or are you a Singaporean) caught with his pants down. In case you don't know what I mean I would refer you to http://www.malaysia-today.net to Raja Petra's latest article on MCKK). All other Malaysians caught with their pants down make all kinds of excuses and its always others to blame.

You Brendan are a man of letters. Well, at least so we were led to believe. Now I ask you do the one thing that can give hope to the tattered Malaysian Values and image.

Can you do the right thing!!!!???

And doing the right thing does not only involve apologies without reservation or excuses but it also has to show remorse. And that can only happen if the "right thing" you are supposed to do is done within a set time frame. You should know better as to what that time frame is and should be!

Ikan senohong gelama ikan duri,
cerita bohong konon buat sendiri,
paper dalam tong lagi mulia dari NST,
meludah kelangit kena muka sendiri. haha padan muka haha padan muka

Ohh .. copy cat pussy cat call yourself a nasty cat!

Isk, syiok berpantun ye, aku ikut serta:

Rumah terbuka Hari Lebaran,
Ramai singgah sembang makan;
Waktu sekolah buat latihan,
Salin pula jawapan rakan.

Teknologi moden zaman sekarang,
Layar Internet semakin senang;
Sudah dewasa jadi pengarang,
Salin pula cerita orang.

Before

'Hindu God & Muslim Priest'

Now, we got another to label NST....

'Hindu God & Muslim Priest and Christian Rabbi'

NST going glocal.

Ouch... Didn't expect someone so high up to do such a thing.. I definitely think it's plagiarism, but in a way it can be a form of mimicry...

Check out Creative Copying, or in Defense of Mimicry by The National Writing Project (deliberately placed two links.. hey, I don't wanna be accused of plagiarising :P) . It says there:

" First, the difference between mimicry and plagiarism is intent. The student who takes information from a source and says, “Hey, this is my stuff. I am sole possessor of this knowledge” is plagiarizing. He has stolen the work of another—usually research, facts and figures—and has published that information as his own. Mimicking, on the other hand, is deliberate as well, but the intent is not to say, “Hey, this is my own work” but rather to say, “Hey, Williams is an awesome poet, so I’m going to try to write like him in a few poems and eventually maybe some of it will rub off on me and be a natural element of my writing style.” "

"So why is mimicry okay? It’s acceptable because the writer is integrating into his own writing elements of the style of another writer that he admires. His goal is to make his writing better. He would not mimic a bad writer; he mimics those writers who are making an impact on him personally or who are achieving a style he finds worthy. Mimicking, unlike plagiarizing, is an approach by which the author tries to better himself, to become more skilled. Just as a student musician is influenced by the playing or composing style of those he admires, a student writer is also influenced by other writers."

The thing is, IF brendan's intention was to mimic, then he should at least credit the source.. I guess most of NST readers don't even read Albom's articles, therefore i personally think it is necessary for mr brendan here to credit the source, because the-average-malaysian-nst-reader would assume that it's his original piece work, which is definitely not true. Anyways, judging from the choice of words, terminologies and phrases that he used(or rather copied), I definitely think this is a case of plagiarism.. Booyah, NST!!

Lai_lai_katong

Whether it is mimicry, creative copying or inspired revelation, crediting the source for such inspiration would be requuired for honest intent to prevail as a valid defense. In the absence of such mention its down right bloody plagiarism.

So, this post is nearing 24 hrs of age, and besides a spattering of blogs, no one else (correct?) seems to be talking about what could be a criminal offense by this NST Group Editor.

What fallout are we expecting, and how long will it take? Will the NST gang just try and keep their heads down and pretend this doesn't exist until it goes away?

That would suck, and we shouldn't let that happen.

LegalBeagle has articulated very well what there is to be said about this episode.

Not quite plagiarism - but still completely unbefitting of any journalist, to say nothing about the standards that Group Editors of major dailies should really be held up to.

Guys, once a while jeff ooi would definitely post something negative related to NST. That i don care.
Whether Brendan plagiarised or not is also not an issue at all here unless you have some personal hatred in relation to that. But i do hope you guys who is going to post comment here to avoid unconstructive comments and side tracking from the main issue., as the owner of this web site always remind bloggers to do.

Brendan is perhaps just a fan of albom.

Let me tell you., Tun M ultimate aim is disastrous to malaysia, regardless what he said about current administration., he is just making use of some known issues (which in fact inherited from his 20 yrs of iron rule) to lure rakyat into opposing the current PM.

Tun M had toppled Tunku Abd Rahman b4, Tun Hussein Onn, and now AAB. Shame should be on Tun M! This is the main issue, ok?

Folks

If that is not plagiarism, then I don't know the meaning of plagiarism.

Curriculum Vitae
BRENDAN PEREIRA

- Journalist of NEW STRAITS TIMEs

- Editor, New Straits Times

- Columnist, New Straits Times

-Plagiarist, New Straits Times

He should change his name in the byline for his next column, because he CANNOT be truste anymore.

Each time we read, we got ask ourselves, "Where did he Steal that sentence and that phrase from?

Brendan Pereira, What a Joke!.

A literary Thief !!

The "Village Idiot" exposed stark naked.

Dear KK,

I actually agree that TDM is a dangerous and hypocritical man with many, many crimes to his name.

I don't like malicious personal attacks, but if we are to have any notions of First Worldness, journalists (especially 'Group Editors') need to be held to a standard of integrity.

BP's plagiarising is a big deal because it's the journalistic equivalent of say, TDM shutting down the judiciary in 1988.

Had BP mentioned Mitch Albom *anywhere*, I think he'd be in indescribably safer territory. As is, his article crossed the line, and I think he needs to be called on it.

This will hopefully be a blow, however small, to the horrible habit of using newspapers as political mouthpieces.

Folks

Each time you read ANY article with byline named
"BRENDAN PEREIRA", don't worry about WHAT HE WROTE or SAID, but to ask yourself,

"From where did Brendan Pereira steal that sentence or phrase in his writings "?

That is how much trust you, the buyer of NST every morning, can give to NST, the UMNO-owned newspaper.

I thought Datuk Zakaria's case is bad for UMNO, now we have an UMNO-owned newspaper's editor caught stealing other people's sentences wholesale.

Truly lacking in effort and creativeness on the part of the Malaysian journalist.

I have stopped reading NST a very long time and this is another reason why I won't be picking up the papers anytime soon.

Dexter

You said... Truly lacking in effort and creativeness on the part of the Malaysian journalist.

Actually, the way I look at it, Brendan Pereira took a GREAT EFFORT to scout around in other peoples' articles and writings for nice-looking sentences and phrases.

Oh, Brendan Pereira IS creative... Took a tremendous creativity on his part to embed other peoples' sentences into his essay AND THEN claim as HIS OWN.

Brendan Pereira should try and apply for a job in Hollywood as a scriptwriter... those film directors love CREATIVE WRITERS like Brendan Pereira.

After all, who checks and remembers what the actor spoke from a plagiarised script for a movie.

Well Frank,

Stupid is as stupid does...

How about predicting what Brendan's excuse is going to be?

I reckon he is going to blame it on his ghost writer.

Maybe if we can create a list of excuses then that will be a list he would not venture to tread on...maybe then he would be for once forced to be really creative. So lets help him out guys...build a list of excuses he cannot use.

His reason might be something like "i never knew Mr. Albom..this might be purely coincidence". Im sure we can accept this :)

So far looks like buat tak tau is the thrust of their response - humiliating.

A list of excuses? Those already mentioned I guess:

1) It was a well intentioned tribute/mimicry/imitation (absolutely NO citation of M.Albom was given)

2) I didn't write it (his name is on it)

3) I accidently forgot to give him credit (What is he, 5? Also, that was Monday, today is Wednesday :| )

4) There's no law against 'borrowing' (I dunno, is there? Anyway, just because it's 'legal' doesn't mean it's 'honorable' or 'ethical' - even Khairy sold his ECM Libra shares kan?)

All I got for now.

*

I've e-mailed a letter to Eds of all English papers and BP himself. It really irks me that there's still next to no coverage. Grrr!

He misses the day that there is no Internet, Google, blogs, broadband and all that.
He misses the day that there is no ten of thousands (if not millions) pair of eyes, reading and absorbing all sort of information.
He misses the day similar number of brains is retaining, analyzing and making good use of the large amount of information.
He misses the day that his papers and articles are deemed the “sole source of truth”.
He misses the day senior editors are considered the de facto “truth” creators.
He misses the day those dumped letters to editors to his paper could easily re-appear in the Internet.
He misses the day dump readers just believe on what they read in newspapers.
He surely misses all that.

Brendan,
macam ini pun boleh buat.tak malukah?
If you cannot spin then don't act like you can spin.

Adakah insiden ini juga dianggap sebagai satu plagiarisme?