Mediaboss Marketing

A Florida State beat writer for the Tallahassee Democrat has resigned after she was found to have plagiarized from a freelancer's story last week. Natalie Pierre and the Democrat announced the resignation today, and both did so in ways that left some questions unanswered.

The Democrat published a very short and dry article about what happened.

Earlier this week, it came to our attention that a story in the Tallahassee Democrat and on Tallahassee.com by Florida State sports reporter Natalie Pierre appeared similar to a story written by freelance writer Tim Linafelt.

After investigating further, we concluded that it was too similar to be pure coincidence, that pieces at least of the story were plagiarized. Pierre resigned and no longer will report on behalf of our news organization.

Pierre gave her own statement on her website. In it, she profusely apologizes but also avoids specifics about the story in question.

After more than three years covering Florida State athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat I resigned from my role on Wednesday, Oct. 1, after I was informed that words that were not my own were published in the Democrat and on Tallahassee.com with my byline. While I did not intentionally plagiarize another journalist's work, I take full responsibility for some of freelance writer Tim Linafelt's words appearing in my story last week.

The plagiarism appears to have happened in a feature about defensive tackle Eddie Goldman. Linafelt wrote a story about Goldman for the Miami Herald that was published online Sept. 23. Pierre wrote a feature about Goldman that was published online the next day. Both stories have similar feels, occasionally making the same points at about the same time. Here are a few passages that probably were flagged as being too similar.

From Linafelt:

With the score tied at 17 and 1:40 remaining on the clock, Clemson was driving deep in FSU territory for a game-clinching score when Goldman descended on running back C.J. Davidson, felt his hand on the ball and yanked it loose.

Excerpt from:
Florida State Beat Writer Resigns After Plagiarism Charges