Transcript
BOB GARFIELD: Now for a few of your letters. Several of you wrote in to challenge the claims of John Barrie, regarding iThenticate, the software that's supposed to detect plagiarized material by recognizing a string of eight consecutive words that it's seen somewhere else. Edward Ruthazer of Huntington, New York writes, "it is worth pointing out that during his interview he made at least three statements of eight words or more that could be matched by a simple google search to previously published text. The phrase 'the thing lit up like a Christmas tree,' eight matches. The phrase 'is not going to make a dent in the problem,' one match. The phrase 'there is so much information on the internet,' 416 matches."
BROOKE GLADSTONE:Which raises the question: can you plagiarize a cliche? We got a ton of mail about our interview with Sam Zeff-- a producer for KCTV in Kansas City, a TV station that set up a sting operation to expose potential pedophiles by using internet chat rooms. Leslie Shippee writes, "I just finished listening to Bob say 'journalistically, I'm queasy, but I just can't tell you why.' Ever hear of a movie called Minority Report? The problem with Sam Zeff is that all his subjects were potential pedophiles. Can anyone say about them that they would definitely go through with it? Since Zeff reported that none of the subjects was a registered sex offender or otherwise previously known as such, I'd say the answer is no."
BOB GARFIELD:And finally C. Martin, of an undisclosed location, tells us, "I was surprised that your piece on Air America didn't mention that the network has displaced minority programming in many cities. If conservative talk radio were displacing this type of programming, I think you would have mentioned it."
BROOKE GLADSTONE:Keep sending your complaints, comments and story ideas to onthemedia@wnyc.org, and could you please tell us where you live and how to pronounce your name.