| Sumario: | The article talks about technology and catching journalism's cheaters such as those committing plagiarism and falsifying news reports. Not telling the truth -- as in making up news stories or parts of them -- and stealing -- as in plagiarism -- have been wrong forever. It has become much easier in the news business to do both: the stealing because of the breadth of information accessible in an instant via the Web, and the lying and stealing because for the most part, editors have been naive enough to believe that people who dedicate their lives to the business of news gathering would never do it. A reporter said that a professor developed the plagiarism-detecting software used to scrutinize USA Today's Jack Kelley's work, as a means to catch plagiarizing college students. But what software will catch TV reporters who stage news video? Another nonsoftware gatekeeper idea on the Web comes from a posting on the Poynter Institute's site from Romenesko. Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editor Jim Witt tells his staff that he has decided that they should select some local stories every month and do a vigorous check of how those stories were written and researched. They have to get in touch with every source in the story to see of they were quoted accurately and if every bit of writing in the story is either original or adequately sourced. Catching cheaters, it seems, is like fashion. Wait 20 years, and something is bound to come back in style.
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