Brian Wise, a reporter and online editor for NPR-affiliated classical music station WQXR, resigned yesterday after a copy editor discovered that words or phrases from 10 of his stories had been copied from other sources without attribution.
The discerning editor uncovered instances of the plagiarism while fact checking Mr. Wise’s latest piece, which was found to contain phrases lifted from other publications. After this discovery, newsroom management began reviewing the 40 pieces Mr. Wise had written for NPR and WQXR since 2008, finding 10 instances of plagiarism since 2011.
NPR has created a landing page for all of Mr. Wise’s plagiarized stories. The words and phrases that were copied without attribution have been highlighted, with links to where they originally appeared—among the publications Mr. Wise copied from were the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Economist.
In an editor’s note, Michael oreskes, NPR’s senior vice president for news, and Graham Parker, WQXR’s general manager, took a hard line against Mr. Wise’s actions.
“There is nothing in journalism that is more important than the trust between a news organization and its audience,” the pair wrote. “We apologize to our audiences and to those who had their work copied without credit.”
Following his resignation, Mr. Wise posted a brief apology on Medium.
“These unintentional lapses are entirely my fault,” Mr. Wise wrote. “I did not live up to my high standards or those of NPR and WQXR. I sincerely apologize for this.”
Aside from his NPR work, Mr. Wise has also contributed to BBC Music and Listen magazine.
