ASU Student Plagiarized Articles for East Valley Tribune and State Press

ASU Student Plagiarized Articles for East Valley Tribune and State Press

By Matthew Hendley Wed., Sep. 5 2012 at 4:53 PM

spectraspeaks.com

The East Valley Tribune announced today that one of the paper's former interns plagiarized several articles while she was "working" there during the spring semester.

The Tribune didn't release the name of the plagiarist, but we can tell you her name is Raquel Velasco -- who was called out for plagiarism late last week by the State Press, Arizona State University's student newspaper.

We sent an e-mail to the Tribune's acting managing editor asking for confirmation, but we didn't get an immediate response.

Velasco's reproductions are being taken down from the Tribune's website, but one of the thefts can be found here -- where it appears material was lifted from Arizona Highways magazine and the Arizona Republic.

Five of the six quotes in that story were from previously published articles in the Republic (here) or Arizona Highways (here).

The State Press called out Velasco for plagiarizing a story from the Phoenix Business Journal, which actually was written by a former State Press writer.

Velasco is a student at ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and if she hasn't already gotten the boot from the j-school, it's got to be happening soon.

Tags:

arizona, arizona state university, east valley tribune, raquel velasco, state press

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corrinedicicco

1 Like

I randomly selected one of her examiner.com stories & cut/pasted a phrase from it into google. She stole the ENTIRE story verbatim from a blog on sheknows.com. Here is the original, posted Aug. 19: http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/968605/why-women-arent-happy ... Here's Velasco's a week later: http://www.examiner.com/article/why-women-aren-t-happy

bdickus2001

@corrinedicicco Every fucking thing she posted on Examiner.com is plagiarized!

Here are just three examples...

Study or Sleep for Better Grades:

Time.comarticle from 08/21: http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/21/study-or-sleep-for-better-grades-students-should-go-to-bed-early/

Velasco cut/pasted on 08/22 http://www.examiner.com/article/study-or-sleep-for-better-grades-teens-should-go-to-bed-early

Big Stick Workout:

Sheknows.com article from 08/24: http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/968477/the-big-stick-work-out

Velasco cut/pasted on 08/26: http://www.examiner.com/article/big-sticking-to-get-shape

6 Supplements:

Sheknows.com article on 04/25: http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/957453/6-supplements-to-boost-your-workouts

Velasco cut/pasted on 08/22: http://www.examiner.com/article/6-supplements-to-amplify-your-workouts

corrinedicicco

@bdickus2001 Well, of course they are.

bdickus2001

Here's a "Cronkite Conversations" online forum where Velasco posted comments about "Shattered Glass" - a movie about a disgraced former writer, who wrote numerous false & fabricated articles for The New Republic magazine. http://cronkiteconversations.asu.edu/2010/08/sept-29-shattered-glass/

corrinedicicco

@bdickus2001 This is awesome. She's the only student to find the plagiarist inspirational. My fave comment: "Now, even though I was in disbelief about how far this writer got with publishing fictional articles, I found a lot of what Stephen had to say to be inspiring."

Wally

Photo: Meet Raquel Velasco http://raquelvelasco.wix.com/2012portfolio#!home/mainPage

Wally

She works at the Arizona Republic, according to her resume! http://thehealthprincess.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/raquel-velasco-work-resume-10-14-11.pdf

Wally

Found it -- her resume: http://thehealthprincess.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/raquel-velasco-work-resume-10-14-11.pdf here is her bio: http://thehealthprincess.wordpress.com/about/

blackwoodjdlkanna

Richard Miranda recently pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud. Miranda was sentenced to 27 months in the federal pen for ripping off hundreds of thousands of dollars from two nonprofits he headed.

http://www.nocommit.com/