Kevin Allman
I'm a writer, journalist, and the editor of The Gambit, the alt-weekly newspaper in New Orleans.
Journalism: My work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Globe & Mail (Canada), The Times- Picayune (New Orleans), The Oregonian, and Willamette Week, as well as in magazines including Details, Vogue, Publishers Weekly, and Portland Monthly.
Publishing: Tight Shot, my first novel, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Its sequel, Hot Shot, was roundly ignored by everyone, but was a far better book. I'm also a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
Stage: I was a member of the Groundlings and Circle Repertory West in Los Angeles, and am a playwright (see "Stage" in the right-hand rail).
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« Rising Tide conference in New Orleans: schedule set | Main | Rolling Stone rolls with the punches »
Plagiarism puts a weekly paper out of business
I've been fascinated by Slate.com music critic Jody Rosen's story, "Dude, You Stole My Article." Rosen discovered that a "Mark Williams," a writer for a small alt-weekly in Texas (its website is now down), the Montgomery County Bulletin, had plagiarized a Jimmy Buffett feature that Rosen had written. Intrigued/pissed off, Rosen decided to dig farther:
Since 2005, the Bulletin has published dozens of stories under Williams' byline that appear to be copied, whole or in part, from other periodicals. Compare the Bulletin's Nov. 4, 2005, Franz Ferdinand piece and this NME review, published five weeks prior; the Bulletin's Steely Dan piece (July 14, 2006) and this article from the Web site All About Jazz (July 4, 2006); the Bulletin's Black Rebel Motorcycle Club featureBoston Globe piece (May 25, 2007); the Bulletin's McKay Brothers articleDallas Observer item (Oct. 19, 2006); and the Bulletin's "God and Country: More Popular Artists Are Now Singing a Spiritual Tune" (Sept. 20, 2007) and the Billie Joe Shaver concert review by Washington Post pop critic J. Freedom du Lac (Sept. 13, 2007). The Eagles piece published in the Bulletin on Dec. 13, 2007 is a nearly word-for-word recapitulation of David Fricke's Rolling Stone review (Nov. 1, 2007). Mark Williams sought inspiration from USA Today for his features on Paul Simon (USA Today version; Bulletin version) and Tom Petty (USA Today version; Bulletin version). The Evanston, Ill.-based blog Pop Matters is the apparent source of articles on Dwight Yoakam (Pop Matters version; Bulletin version) and Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs (Pop Matters version; Bulletin version). And then there's "Crazy About 'Crazy' " (March 2, 2007), Williams' deconstruction of the monster 2006 pop hit by Gnarls Barkley—an article that bears a striking resemblance to "Crazy for 'Crazy'," published six months earlier in Slate.
Rosen spoke to the paper's editor, Mike Ladyman, but then Ladyman rabbited and went to ground. After Slate ran Rosen's feature, though, the Bulletin abruptly folded and Ladyman and WIlliams (or, as it appears, Ladyman/Williams) went on a pity-party attack, blaming Rosen for taking their/his mendacity public. From the Houston Press interview with Ladyman:
"It is a low-budget publication. Or was. It's no longer a publication. I'm quitting. After this Slate article and this is the future of journalism in New York City [sic]. I don't want any part of it."
But it was "Williams"' open letter to Jody Rosen that iced this cake. It reads, in part:
It must have taken years of seasoned investigative know-how to push me off my lofty perch. It takes a dogged, intrepid journalist to expose the alleged wrongdoings of a 44-year-old college dropout who drifted from one lousy media job to another for 20 years; it takes courage to debase someone with a mouthful of cut-rate dentures who, up until 2007, lived in his parents' home for seven years due to near-fatal bouts of clinical depression; it takes a journalist of a certain caliber to torpedo a pathetic hack who has barely squeezed out a living for nearly a decade at seven cents a word....
It is easy to make fun of our little rag, Mr. Rosen -- to call attention to the gaffes and human foibles of a couple of faceless rubes a half a nation away; but, despite your grievances with our publication, I feel that we have done some good in our corner of the world. Through our output of articles over the years, we kept a hateful rogue element of the local Republican Party from taking control of our county library system and ripping the Constitution to shreds; we have reported unblinkingly on the troubled plight of illegal aliens living in our area; we have stood face-to-face with members of the Ku Klux Klan to question their ideological inconsistencies; and we touched the heart of a killer who turned himself in after reading an article in our publication on his victim, who, for years, struggled with alcoholism and the estrangement it caused with his family. In short, we have called attention to a great number of injustices in our crappy little town, both great and small.
So there it is, Mr. Rosen -- congratulations on breaking an already fragile soul. In the end, I'm not sure what the point of all of this truly is, other than some sort of small dully colored feather in your journalistic cap. We bow to you, Mr. Rosen -- to your talent, to your humanity, to all that is you.
Hey, Jody Rosen: nice feather, man.
08:07 PM in Ethics, Funny, Journalism, Mendacity | Permalink
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That letter simply ... well, boggles.
Posted by: Jil | August 10, 2008 at 06:37 AM
Looks like another case of a lazy editor and publisher and a crack stupid lying writer who finally got caught in a web of thievery. Sad and pathetic.
Good for Rosen and Slate for exposing this crap for what it is; theft and lack of journalistic integrity.
Note to Wiiliams: just because you suffer from depression and dental problems and professional woes and money issues doesn't mean it is ok to plagerize. Your paper went down because you helped it go down.
Note to Ladyman: You are an idiot.
Note to both Ladyman and Williams: there's a liitle thing called journalistic ethics. Ever heard of them?
Posted by: Lizzy Caston | August 10, 2008 at 10:50 AM
I heard this story twice on NPR (I think On the media) wit'phone tape from da'Mxr. Williams. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Da'Rosen Knows!
I was lookin'fo just the reason to hang this on da'Ladda --and herah you ara!
No matta where ya'goin...
Thanks Kevin,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
Posted by: New Orleans Ladder | August 10, 2008 at 04:10 PM
I forgot about this ... years and years ago, I was writing pieces for a magazine that went out to various car clubs.
One day, I was looking through another club's magazine, and there was one of my stories -- printed verbatim, but with another writer's name in the byline.
The editor and I contacted the editor of that magazine and made him aware of the issue. He apologized, said that the writer (a club member, not a professional) didn't realize it was wrong, and said it wouldn't happen again.
In the following issue of our magazine, we ran a short statement saying that all stories were copyrighted and that you couldn't rerun them without permission.
We got a nasty letter from the editor, who said that since it was obviously aimed at him, we were "harassing" him, and if we didn't stop, he would look into legal action...
Posted by: Jil | August 10, 2008 at 04:43 PM
If I battle the KKK and touch the heart of a killer (figuratively) can I plagiarize too?
I also enjoy the line tying excuses for plagiarism with how long you lived in your parents basement.
Posted by: Matt Bors | August 10, 2008 at 05:35 PM
Oh, my heart bleeds for poor "Mark Williams". Eight years back, I was editing an online magazine intended to be a supplement and augmentation to the publisher's three other publications, and discovered one day that one of my reviewers was plagiarizing reviews from others. She wasn't even doing a good job of it, because as soon as she'd get fired from one venue, as I did, she'd promptly offer the same plagiarized reviews to another, apparently so that she'd continue to get free books and DVDs.
Well, when I confronted her with the evidence, she promptly threw a similar tantrum with similar pity lines: she admitted that she'd "paraphrased" her reviews, but that was because she so desperately wanted to let the world know how good these books were. See, she was on disability in New York (which was why she wrote for so many venues for free, because she'd get cut off if she made more than $100 per month from writing), and she really needed to review those books (because apparently she was supplementing those disability checks by selling the books and DVDs she received), and I was being completely unfair in judging her when she was in such a horrible way (to the point of plagiarizing reviews because there was no way in Hell that she could have reviewed all of those books on her own). For the next three or four years, long after I'd quit, I'd get letters from other editors asking about her: even though I'd fired her, and she knew that I wouldn't keep this a secret, she still used me as a reference. After about 2004, I think she finally caught on that my reviews of her work were both original and rather blistering.
Posted by: Texas Triffid Ranch | August 14, 2008 at 12:23 PM
The hope of green fields, we yearn for the dream!
Posted by: Ajf 6 | July 13, 2010 at 10:11 PM
"Q&A: Ann Rogers Tuennerman & Paul Tuennerman," (New Orleans Living, July 2008)
Review, Slumberland by Paul Beatty (Washington Post, 6 July 2008)
"Gambit Weekly's Top 50 New Orleans Bars," (Gambit Weekly, 24 June 2008)
"Radio Activists: The State of Internet Radio & Louisiana Music," (Gambit Weekly, 17 June 2008)
Interview: Criss Angel, (Muscle & Body, June 2008)
"Q&A: Anais St. John," (New Orleans Living, May 2008)
"Craft Mafia," (Gambit Weekly, 6 May 2008)
"Pour It On," (Get Active!, Spring 2008)
Mystery roundup, (Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2008)
Review, Them by Nathan McCall (Willamette Week, 16 Jan. 2008)
Review, T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton, edited version (Miami Herald, 8 Jan. 2008)
Review, T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton (Washington Post, 13 Dec. 2007)
"Sticker Shock," (Edible Portland, Winter 2008)
"clarklewis, reloaded," (Willamette Week, 24 Oct. 2007)
Mystery roundup, (Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2007)
2007 Restaurant Guide (Willamette Week, Fall 2007)
"At the Hop," (Edible Portland, Fall 2007)
"Katrina still echoes through lives, and deaths," (Oregonian, 19 Aug. 2007)
"On Good Land," (Edible Portland, Summer 2007)
Review, The Overlook by Michael Connelly (Washington Post, 23 May 2007)
Mystery roundup, (Washington Post, 13 May 2007)
Review, You Won't Remember This by Kate Blackwell (Publishers Weekly, 9 Apr. 2007)
Review, Roux restaurant (Portland, OR) (Willamette Week, 25 Apr. 2007)
Review, Boomsday by Christopher Buckley (Willamette Week, 25 Apr. 2007)
"Senior Exercise," (Get Active!, Spring 2007)
"Recovering from storm, large," (Willamette Week, 7 Mar. 2007)
Review, Small Town Punk by John Sheppard (Willamette Week, 7 Mar. 2007)
"The dish on a New Orleans renaissance," (Washington Post, 18 Feb. 2007)
"The Big Easy, made easy," (Oregonian, 11 Feb. 2007)
"Seattle's new sculpture park celebrates art on a larger scale," (Oregonian, 11 Feb. 2007)
"Short, Sweet, & Online: Short Film Festivals Go Virtual" (PBS.org, Inside Indies, 17 Dec. 2006)
"Fatal Distraction," (Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2006)
"Aghast in Gaza," (Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2006)
"Shell Shock," (Portland Monthly, Sept. 2006)
"Battle of the Diets," (Get Active!, Fall 2006)
"Victorian's Secret," (Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2006)
"MiPL up some new acquaintances," (Oregonian, 11 Aug. 2006)
"Mondo Croquet," (Oregonian, 28 July 2006)
"Carnival on Foot": New Orleans marching clubs on Mardi Gras morning (WHERE New Orleans)
"Civilized Jungles": Reflections on Southern courtyards (Essential New Orleans)
"South by Northwest": My Hurricane Katrina story (Portland Monthly)
Interview: Danny Elfman (Details)
Interview: John Waters (WHERE New Orleans)
Interview: Kurt Cobain (Advocate)
Interview: Stone Temple Pilots (Details)
Interview: Zachary Richard (WHERE New Orleans)
"Film as Change: Documentaries That Made a Difference" (PBS.org, Inside Indies)
"Independent Lens at 5" (iTVS.org, Beyond the Box)
"Short, Sweet, & Online: Short Film Festivals Go Virtual" (PBS.org, Inside Indies)
"Troop 1500" (PBS.org, Independent Lens)
"The Devil's Miner" (PBS.org, Independent Lens)
"Maid in America" (PBS.org, Independent Lens)
NOTABLE OLDIES
An Englishman abroad: a profile of Martin Amis (Los Angeles Times)
Drop the brush and back away: when celebrities take up painting (Los Angeles Times)
The kids are alright, and they're having sex: KROQ's "Loveline" (Los Angeles Times)
Have tux, will travel: covering the Oscars (Los Angeles Times)
Searching for bad taste in L.A.: a vast topic (Los Angeles Times)
Booklist:
"A worthy successor to Tight Shot, Allman's insider view of the seamier side of Hollywood is not only hip and entertaining but also has something serious to say about our insatiable hunger for tabloid thrills."
Washington Post:
"Barbed, breezy and often pretty funny...sharp and entertaining. Allman can be very funny, and Hot Shot complements nicely the less forgiving takes on Los Angeles as the future of us all. "
EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE
BEST FIRST NOVEL
MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA
"Allman turns a very sardonic pen loose on Hollywood's glitz-and-glamour crowd in this entertaining first novel... An impressive debut and an almost sure thing for a sequel."
New Orleans Times-Picayune:
"Allman clearly knows those of whom he writes. He's got L.A. nailed."
Publishers Weekly:
"Snappy debut... Readers will look for a sequel."
BOO AND THE SHREVEPORT BABY
A French Quarter convenience-store clerk has a hilariously traumatic encounter with a pair of Shreveport tourists. Part of Native Tongues 3 (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2001; Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago; 2006).
BACKBONES
An upper-class black caterer finds comeuppance and redemption. Part of Native Tongues 4 (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2005).
MY-O-MY
A recreation of an evening at the notorious New Orleans 1950s female-impersonator nightclub My-O-My (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2005).
THE LOVE GIFT
A lonely man discovers purpose when he intercepts a televangelist's letters from his neighbor's mailbox. Part of the Dramarama New Plays Festival (Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; 2004).
BABYDADDY
A black father discovers that no good deed goes unpunished when he helps his white neighbor bail her son out of Orleans Parish Prison. (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2004; Walker Percy Southern Playwrights Festival, Covington; 2007).
TWO IN THE BUSH
An evening of comedies. In The Stud Mule, the world's richest woman arranges to be impregnated by a doltish escort; in Snatching Victory, an earnest college student runs afoul of her lecherous professor and the dour head of a women's-studies department (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2003).
NEW ORLEANS READING
Patty Friedmann: A Little Bit Ruined
One of the first post-Katrina novels, and probably destined to be one of the best. Friedmann's sequel to Eleanor Rushing finds her crazy heroine still holding everything together after the storm (after a fashion), until she has to leave New Orleans and she falls apart physically as well as mentally. Mordantly, morbidly funny.
Tom Piazza: Why New Orleans Matters
The best post-Katrina book I've read. In 150 small pages, Piazza explicates the New Orleans experience simply and beautifully. I'll be passing this one on to anyone who wonders "But why would anyone want to live there?".
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