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Ron Borges, columnist for the Boston Glob, previously notable for asserting that five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong was not an athlete (since taken offline; don't worry, you're not missing anything), has been suspended for two months for plagiarizing.
My question: what the hell does that solve? He either committed an egregious offense utterly contrary to the acceptable code of conduct for his profession, or he didn't. If he didn't, he deserves no punishment. If he did -- if after being a columnist at one of the nation's major newspapers for this long he is incapable of realizing the thievery and fraud of stealing another's work as his own -- he deserves to be (a) fired (b) drummed out of the quasi-professional field of sports writing and (c) kicked in the face repeatedly. A suspension? He's not seven years old, he doesn't need a time-out. It's people like this that've turned most of sports journalism into a morass of half-witted hackery, and it's treatment like this that keeps it stagnant.
My question: what the hell does that solve? He either committed an egregious offense utterly contrary to the acceptable code of conduct for his profession, or he didn't. If he didn't, he deserves no punishment. If he did -- if after being a columnist at one of the nation's major newspapers for this long he is incapable of realizing the thievery and fraud of stealing another's work as his own -- he deserves to be (a) fired (b) drummed out of the quasi-professional field of sports writing and (c) kicked in the face repeatedly. A suspension? He's not seven years old, he doesn't need a time-out. It's people like this that've turned most of sports journalism into a morass of half-witted hackery, and it's treatment like this that keeps it stagnant.
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