Was Ken Parish Perkins Wronged?

Eric Celeste, his former editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, says so in a letter he sent to Pegasus News, FrontBurner and Romenesko.

Here’s the background on the plagiarism scandal, and here’s an excerpt from Eric’s letter:

Jim Witt says a “reader” alerted the paper. What Witt failed to note in his “full disclosure” moment was that this reader is an editor at the paper’s regional competitor, The Dallas Morning News…

[Ken] had no recourse, no ability to appeal for mercy, because none could be granted. Why not? Because editors are scared to make decisions on their own. They edit scared every day, in every way. They’re scared of the Internet, scared of taking a stand, scared of using their gut, scared of being criticized by readers or fringe media wonks or colleagues or corporate suits, scared of making a decision that could mess up the sweet life they’ve carved for themselves. The Star-Telegram was scared that since the Morning News alerted them, they would do something on it in their paper.

Update: More in defense of Ken from Richard Prince’s Journal-isms.

Technorati tags: Journalism, Plagiarism, Ken Parish Perkins, Media

Tags: dallas pr, dallas public relationsd, Star Telegram