In more than 30 years, I have never worked at a daily newspaper that didn't insist I cite the source of quotes I didn't get myself. My god, the kids at the tiny campus paper I advise understand the basic rule that if you didn't get the quote yourself, you cite the source.
So, you tell me how someone allegedly as smart as Zakaria -- or Frum -- doesn't know that. The "prestigious publications don't name the interviewer" defense is astonishingly wrong.
Stop with the lame excuses: A researcher did it, and Zakaria just signed off on it; he left the attribution out because he didn't want to harm the flow of his writing; if it is plagiarism, it's the lowest form and not worthy of any significant punishment; it's a gray area; lots of people do it.
Yes, such theft happens all the time by low lifes on the Internet and at shabbier publications. So, what? That doesn't mean we should all behave as badly as them. Let's enrich the new technology with the kind of ethical and journalistic standards we can be proud of -- not the kind that force our employers to remove our work from the Internet when our deception is revealed.
It might not be convenient or pleasant to actually enforce real punishment against a member of the so-called media elite. But until we do, we will never start to regain the public's respect and trust.
