Dr. Dane S. Claussen interviewed about New York Times plagiarism Friday, May 22, 2009

Dr. Dane S. Claussen, Professor & Graduate Program Director, School of Communication, was interviewed Monday afternoon, May 18, by KDKA radio afternoon news hosts Paul Rasmussen and Rose Ryan-Douglas about the plagiarism scandal surrounding New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

Dr. Claussen told Rasmussen, Ryan-Douglas, and their listeners that Dowd's explanation of how a long sentence from The Talking Points website appeared in her column, almost verbatim, defied belief. Dr. Claussen said even if NY Times executives believe Dowd's story, she should be punished with something like a short-term leave; if it is determined that Dowd lied to her superiors and the public about how the plagiarism occurred, he said, she should be fired.

Dr. Claussen has been teaching media ethics to graduate students in journalism/mass communication at Point Park University for 8 years, and he taught media ethics at Missouri State University before that. He is a prize-winning former editor and publisher of daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly newspapers in Washington state, Oregon, and Wisconsin.