Wordsmith

It’s bad when a plagiarist can still gain work at a newspaper. Look at the case of Graham Scott Flowers (also known as Scott Flowers), the sports editor for the weekly Southeast Sun in Enterprise, Ala.

Flowers was fired from the 34,000-circulation Dothan (Ala.) Eagle in the late 1990s because he plagiarized a column from USA Today. It wasn’t just readers that complained about the stolen column. Co-workers noticed, too.

“The paper was right there in the trash can beside his desk,” a fellow staffer who has since moved on said. “It was quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen a reporter do. I mean, if you’re going to plagiarize something, don’t get it out of USA Today.”

Flowers got work at the Southeast Sun in neighboring Enterprise. But in 2006, he proved he hadn’t learned his lesson when he lifted a column nearly word-for-word from former Birmingham Post-Herald columnist-turned-radio-personality Paul Finebaum.

Fellow reporters called Flowers’ editor, Kay Kirkland, at the Sun. She declined to discuss the matter, saying it was a personnel issue. Publisher Russell Quattlebaum expressed his embarrassment over the incident, but would not reveal what, if any, steps were taken to discipline Flowers.

As of this date, Flowers still works at the Sun as its sports editor.