An open letter to Ms. Jessica Lear, editor in chief of the Pitt News

By Michael Butler and Kevin Funk

November 17, 2005


We are writing to you, Ms. Lear, about the recent instance of plagiarism in the Pitt News, and your response to this incident. In the article in question, a Nov. 4 column entitled "Rhetoric against Israel Unfair," Mr. Scott Simeone lifted nearly an entire paragraph directly from an Anti-Defamation League report without attribution.

Once this came to our attention, we met with you on Nov. 7 to discuss this issue. In the course of our meeting, you expressed grave concern over Mr. Simeone's actions, which you informed us were grounds for "immediate dismissal." Further, you stated that you would write a column explaining the Pitt News' policies regarding plagiarism and how the newspaper would proceed in this matter. Additionally, you committed to printing a letter which we submitted the next day, on Nov. 8.

After three days without hearing from you or seeing any mention of this matter in print, we again contacted you on Nov. 11, one week after the column was printed. In this telephone conversation, you told us to expect our letter to be printed on Nov. 14 or that you would contact us by this date.

On Nov. 15, you included a brief retraction in the newspaper apologizing for the article and explaining the Pitt News' policy on plagiarism, which curiously was not published on your newspaper's website. Our letter failed to appear in either medium, prompting us to contact you again. You asked that we resubmit our letter without any specific references to Mr. Simeone's plagiarism, which we did later the same day.

As of Nov. 17, you still have not published our letter nor responded to us in any form.

We are therefore appealing to the University of Pittsburgh community, as well as those concerned with fair and accurate reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to contact Ms. Lear and the Pitt News to ensure that we are able to respond to Mr. Simeone's plagiarized and one-sided commentary.


Jessica Lear, Editor in Chief
editor@pittnews.com
412-648-7985
412-648-8491 (fax)


To see the original article, which has since been taken down, go to the copy of the Google cached version that has been uploaded to Michael’s Pitt webspace here. A copy of the most recent version of our letter is pasted below:

According to George Orwell, language “becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” Perhaps never before have such words been more applicable than in regards to Scott Simeone’s recent column, “Rhetoric against Israel Unfair,” which vacillates between complete unintelligibility and logical fallacies that would give pause to the Flat Earth Society.

For a writer who claims in his article’s title to be uncovering a wave of “rhetoric against Israel,” Simeone provides only one actual example – that of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Exposing a deluge of such sentiments certainly requires more than one citing of a hardliner.

Furthermore, he states that Israel is “surrounded by 22 Arab neighbors” in “the heart of a turbulent region.” Israel, in fact, is “surrounded” by only four “Arab neighbors” – Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Of the other 18 countries generally considered as “Arab,” only in Simeone’s parallel universe do the Indian Ocean islands of Comoros or the western African nations of Mauritania and Morocco constitute the potential threats to Israeli security that he implies.

While Simeone extols Israel’s “willingness to appease its surrounding neighbors,” it is in reality still occupying parts of both Syria (the Golan Heights) and Lebanon (the Shebaa Farms), and continuing its stranglehold of and brutal military offensive into the same Gaza Strip from which it has supposedly “disengaged.” Far from Simeone’s radar, apparently, is the still-occupied West Bank, home to constantly-expanding and illegal Israeli colonies, as well as a population of millions of Palestinians forced to survive in ever-shrinking Bantustans.

It is bad enough for a writer to baselessly make claims of anti-Israeli rhetoric, worse still to justify military occupation and policies reminiscent of South African apartheid.