The Ed Show didn't attribute this segment's reporting to Yahoo News' Chris Moody. Moody had reported Frank Luntz's ten tips on Occupy Wall Street, which the Ed Show aired without credit. The Ed Show later apologized on air.
MSNBC’s Ed Schultz apologized on air for not attributing information from a segment on Occupy Wall Street to Yahoo News’ Chris Moody.
Moody’s Dec. 1 story reported on Frank Luntz’s “10 do’s and don’ts from Luntz” on Occupy Wall Street. For the story, Moody went to Luntz’s speech, summarized the gist of his argument and added quotations, according to Fishbowl DC, which called out MSNBC in a Dec. 2 post.. However, in a Dec. 1 segment of The Ed Show, Schultz aired the ten tips without any attribution. “We’ve got a thief on our hands,” Fishbowl DC wrote.
During a Dec. 2 segment of The Ed Show, Schultz referenced the 10 tips and showed some of the tips with a note crediting Moody and Yahoo News. Moody and Schultz also discussed Luntz’s presentation. Moody’s article is here. Schultz’s segment is here.
Moody tweeted Dec. 2 to The Ed Show writing “Hi @edshow, you copied my story verbatim on your show last night and claimed it as your own. Why did you do that?” He later tweeted to The Ed Show and MSNBC thanking them both “for being so gracious this afternoon” and noting he would be on the program.
Schultz’s on-air apology was: “The inside information was reported by Chris Moody from Yahoo News who was in the room during Luntz’s meeting last night. We neglected to give credit to this reporter for originating the story, Luntz’s talking points, and we apologize for that oversight.”
According to Fishbowl DC, Moody said “it’s all water under the bridge” and that the producers “were very gracious about the whole thing.” Moody told iMediaEthics by e-mail that “The MSNBC producers went above and beyond when they realized the mistake. There are no hard feelings whatsoever.”
Also of interest though is a Dec. 1 blog post on The Ed Show’s website, we note. The blog post is based on Moody’s story, and both credits and links to Moody’s Yahoo News report. But, the blog post features verbatim, but not attributed or quoted, sentence and phrases from Moody’s post. For example, The Ed Show blog wrote:
“Luntz offered tips on how Republicans could discuss the grievances of the Occupiers, and help the governors better handle all these new questions from constituents about “income inequality” and “paying your fair share.”
…”counted 10 do’s and don’ts from Luntz covering how Republicans should fight back by changing the way they discuss the movement.”
That information is identical to Moody’s story but contains no quote marks around it indicating it wasn’t written by Moody. We have written to MSNBC asking about the unquoted material on The Ed Show blog and to see if MSNBC has any further comment.
