AS A YOUNG REPORTER “back in the day,” it was impressed on me to “cite my sources.” Not mine to editorialize, only to report what was said, and done, and by whom.
Now I find that admonition came from a much earlier time.
I WAS READING JOS. TELUSKIN’S A Code of Jewish Ethics when I read in a chapter on humility that Always cite your sources and Teluskin’s reference to Avot 6.6.1
Teluskin wrote that Not only is this (citing sources) the fair thing to do — taking credit for someone else’s insight is a form of stealing — but it also serves as a reminder to each of us that our wisdom is built upon that of others.
It also constitutes plagiarism and that can lead to a costly civil suit. (See PLAGIARISM near bottom of file.)
The words of Avot Teluskin was citing are Whosoever quotes a thing in the name of him that said it, brings deliverance into the world, as it is said “And Esther told the king thereof in the name of Mordecai.”2, 3.
Unfortunately for the people who know me best, they learned that when they told me something I knew was outside their field of expertise, my instant, and often brusque response was “Who said; what’s your source.”
My Spouse is an educator — teacher and administrator — so when she tells me the best way to teach a subject is this way or that, I know she’s is basing her opinion on real world experience.
All my children react loudly when someone on tv says something is “most” or “very” unique. Unique, along with a few other words, cannot be modified; something is unique — one of a kind — or it isn’t.
I failed to recognize, until I was reading Teluskin’s work, that citing sources was “diRabinon” — a rabbinical requirement. Not quite on the level of a Torah mitzvah (commandment, positive or negative), but at least “semi-binding.” It's talmudic.
For all that, it also is — or at least was — a commandment for all reporters, ranking up there with “spell the person’s name correctly” and “keep the lead (initial) paragraph to 10 words or less.” Some commandments are easier to keep than others.
It is nice to know I have something on which to base my almost pathological need to cite my sources.
Sources
1. Chapter 21, Cultivating Humility, Page 218, #3.
2. Translation from Ethics of the Fathers, by Philip Blackman, Judaica Press, ISBN 0-910818-15-0, ©1985.
3. From Megelat Esther (the Purim story), Chap. 2, V 21
4. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage Oxford University Press; my inherited copy published in 1952 (I think)
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
