Plagiarism and Fabrication

What is Plagiarism and Fabrication?

 

Based on Gene Foreman’s book, ‘The Ethical Journalist’, fabrication is defined as “making things up and passing them off as genuine”, whereas plagiarism is “taking credit for phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or even an entire story” (pressbooks). The following list includes examples of historical and recent cases of both plagiarism and fabrication.

NYC schools block access to ChatGPT over cheating concerns

NYC’s Department of Education (DEO) banned ChatGPT from school related devices and networks because of concerns about its misuse of information and cheating. ChatGPT is a chatbot released in November that has received popularity for its ability to produce humanlike responses to various types of topics in different forms such as essays, poetry, or jokes. However, ChatGPT still has its flaws as it may generate inaccurate information in its responses. 

On top of that, it has also triggered controversy from educators who believe its creation will lead to dishonesty in the academic world, allowing students to generate assignments and other work by just a press of a few keys. For instance, in South Carolina a college professor spoke with The Post on how he found one of his students generating an essay on ChatGPT on an historical philosopher, David Hume. 

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‘The Batman’ plot swiped from comic book scribe’s 1990 story: suit

Christopher Wozniak, a visual artist and writer, is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damage from the 2022 Hollywood movie, ‘The Batman’, starring Robert Pattinson. He argues that the film’s plot is a copy of his own story about a 1990 Batman titled ‘The Blind Man’s Hat’, originally known as ‘The Ultimate Riddle’. The plot follows a Riddler who torments Gotham City with police corruption and is controlled by criminal banking gangs. Wozniak stated that the scenes were taken from his story; for example, one scene where Batman’s butler Alfred was firebombed by the villain, and the cloaked crusader who learns of the incident over the phone. 

Manhattan federal court suit stated, “This scene is copied from an original expression in the Copyrighted Work.”

Another example is the revealing of the Riddler where riddles are left by the madman, indicating that he knows Batman’s true identity. A representative for Warner Brothers failed to respond when requested for comment. 

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Biden claims Delaware firefighters almost died at his home despite minor damage

In 2004, President Biden’s kitchen caught fire. Biden spoke of the incident on Tuesday of how Delaware firefighters nearly survived the small fire: 

“And the kitchen floor — we almost lost a couple firefighters, they tell me, because the kitchen floor was — the burning between the beams and in the house in addition to, it almost collapsed into the basement,” Biden remarked.

“We didn’t lose our home, but lightning struck and we lost an awful lot of it,” he later added.

Though a local fire official, Chief George Lamborn, who was there at the time of the fire told AP (Associated Press) that the fire was quickly put out:

“Luckily, we got it pretty early. The fire was under control in 20 minutes.”

President Biden’s house fire story has received careful reviews for years, counting last November when Biden said, “I know, having had a house burn down with my wife in it — she got out safely, God willing — that having a significant portion of it burn, I can tell: 10 minutes makes a hell of a difference.”

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