The Sheboygan Sun plagiarizes Chumpbait story
The newspaper committed copyright infringement
SHEBOYGAN — In a profound betrayal of community trust, The Sheboygan Sun had published an article which plagiarized a story from Chumpbait.
On Monday, the newspaper owned by Jim O'Rourke published an article on their website that Chumpbait reported on last week Friday about LongHorn Steakhouse looking to build a restaurant next to Olive Garden in the Town of Sheboygan.1
RELATED: LongHorn Steakhouse looks to open Sheboygan restaurant next to Olive Garden
The Sheboygan Sun article contained four lines of text found only on the Chumpbait website, copied word-for-word. Not only did the paper plagiarize but it also committed copyright infringement since all content on the Chumpbait website is copyrighted. Another line in The Sun’s story is exactly the same as The Sheboygan Press story on the proposed development.2 As of Tuesday evening, the plagiarized story had been taken down from the paper’s website.
When reached by phone on Tuesday afternoon, Tracy Folz, Editor of The Sun, stated she had “no idea” how several lines of Chumpbait’s story ended up on the Sheboygan Sun website. In June, O'Rourke's Wisconsin Media Group announced Folz had been named Editor of The Sheboygan Sun.3 According to the announcement of Folz’s hiring, she had worked for a number of years as a freelancer for Kiel’s Tri-County News, another newspaper owned by O'Rourke.
It’s upsetting that this media outlet committed this intellectual theft and is a clear violation of journalistic ethics. It’s common sense: you don’t steal content. There is no excuse for this. The company that owns the paper had been been searching for an editor for months before hiring Folz, who was employed at Plymouth Industries as a secretary. Perhaps if Folz had the proper education, training and background in journalism, Chumpbait’s story would not have been plagiarized. It’s not like this paper has a large staff of reporters where this could have been overlooked.
As of Tuesday night, no apology has been received for this egregious act.
The Sheboygan Sun started publishing in 1999 by Mike Walton Jr., and his father, Mike Walton Sr. They also had owned three radio stations in Sheboygan: WHBL, B93.7 and The Point before selling the stations to Midwest Communications. The Walton family sold The Sun in 2020 to O'Rourke Media Group,4 which is based in Arizona. In addition to The Sheboygan Sun and Tri-County News, O'Rourke also owns six other papers in Wisconsin. They operate in nine states and 38 markets with 51 publications and websites.
In Sheboygan County, there is only one media outlet that is locally owned and operated. Plymouth-based Wisconsin Newspress owns The Sheboygan Beacon, The Plymouth Review and The Sheboygan Falls News. The Sheboygan Press is owned by Gannett which is based in Virginia and WHBL is owned by Midwest Communications in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Sources
Town of Sheboygan gears up for LongHorn Steakhouse, joins Olive Garden
The Sheboygan Press
Tracy Folz named editor of Sheboygan Sun in Wisconsin
Editor & Publisher Magazine
Wisconsin Media Group buys Sheboygan Sun shopper
Wisconsin Newspaper Association