Cobb chairman’s chief deputy plagiarized a second time

The office of Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee is dealing with a second instance of plagiarism since late August. The first involved use of content from a Kentucky newspaper; the latest involves paragraphs taken without attribution from the Marietta Daily Journal.

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

The office of Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee is dealing with a second instance of plagiarism since late August. The first involved use of content from a Kentucky newspaper; the latest involves paragraphs taken without attribution from the Marietta Daily Journal.


Passages from a Marietta Daily Journal story dated March 1, 2015 and Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee's electronic newsletter, sent March 6, 2015:

MDJ: "Mike Plant, Braves executive vice president of business operations, said about 90 to 100 people are working daily on the site, not including the engineers, architects and supervisors working out of the trailers set up there."

Lee Newsletter: "With 90 to 100 people working daily on the site, not including the engineers, architects and supervisors working out of trailers, SunTrust Park continues making progress and much of this work is being completed by Cobb County firms."

MDJ: (Cobb Commissioner Bob) "Ott is encouraged the Braves have been able to direct so much of the work for SunTrust Park to Cobb firms and said he thinks as more of the smaller contracts are awarded, this trend will continue. For instance, the grading work on the site was awarded to Austell-based Plateau Excavation, work on underground plumbing is being done by Smyrna-based Art Plumbing Company and underground electrical work is to be completed by Mableton-based Inglett & Stubbs."

Lee newsletter: "To date, the Braves have been able to direct much of the work for SunTrust Park to Cobb firms and this trend is expected to continue as smaller contracts are awarded. So far, the grading work on the site was awarded to Austell-based Plateau Excavation, work on the underground plumbing is being done by Smyrna-based Art Plumbing Company and underground electrical work is to be competed by Mableton-based Inglett & Stubbs."

Passages from Lee’s letter, published Aug. 23 2015 in the MDJ and a letter written by Kentucky victim advocate Mary Lynn Houlihan published in the Lexington Herald Leader in May:

Lee: "Please remember not only the good works done by police in our community but that for every badge, there is a person, family and friends behind it who care."

Houlihan: "Please remember not only the good works done by police in your community but that for every badge, there is a person, family and friends behind it that care."

Lee: "Our public safety officials are exposed to some of the worst things humans can do to one another, and those are often images that stick with them forever."

Houlihan: "They (police) are exposed to some of the worst things humans can do to one another and those are often images that are forever seared into their brains."

Lee: "…we are privileged to have good, solid, honorable men and women who take pride in their jobs protecting our community every single day."

Houlihan: "…(police) have been good, solid, kind men and women who take pride in their job protecting our community."

Two paragraphs from an article in the Marietta Daily Journal were printed without attribution in a March newsletter from Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee’s office.

It’s the second known instance of plagiarism from Lee’s office since January, when Kellie Brownlow was hired as chief deputy — responsible for much of the office’s communications — at a salary of $105,000 a year.

The paragraphs that appeared in the newsletter six months ago were lifted from an story that gave an update on SunTrust Park construction, according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

» DocumentRead what the Marietta Daily Journal wrote to Cobb County

The AJC reported Aug. 26 that a pro-police letter to the editor, purportedly written by Lee, contained four paragraphs taken from a letter that was published earlier in a Kentucky newspaper. Lee's letter was published in the Marietta Daily Journal and also submitted to the AJC, which ran an edited version that removed, or placed in quotation marks, the passages that were lifted from the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Brownlow acknowledged authoring the letter to the editor and using the text without attribution. She called the phrases she lifted “rhetorical” and said it is “common practice in political discourse to frame an issue with words that have proven to work.”

Lee was quoted in the Marietta Daily Journal saying Brownlow wouldn’t be disciplined because she “has learned a valuable lesson.”

But the plagiarism in the newsletter was brought to light in a complaint by MDJ editor Jon Gillooly.

“Why are passages from (MDJ) articles being lifted and used in the chairman’s newsletter without attribution?” Gillooly wrote to Robert Quigley, who was the county’s communications director at the time. “This is plagiarism.”

Quigley responded that the information came directly from the chairman’s office and his staff wasn’t involved: “Kellie will be contacting you soon, if she hasn’t already.”

One paragraph in the MDJ article quoted Commissioner Bob Ott as saying he was encouraged the Braves directed so much work to Cobb firms and that he expects that to continue as smaller contracts are awarded.

“For instance, the grading work on the site was awarded to Austell-based Plateau Excavation, work on the underground plumbing is being done by Smyrna-based Art Plumbing Company and underground electrical work is to be completed by Mableton-based Inglett & Stubbs,” the article says.

The newsletter: “To date, the Braves have been able to direct much of the work for SunTrust Park to Cobb firms and this trend is expected to continue as smaller contracts are awarded. So far, the grading work on the site was awarded to Austell-based Plateau Excavation, work on the underground plumbing is being done by Smyrna-based Art Plumbing Company and underground electrical work is to be completed by Mableton-based Inglett & Stubbs.”

“Well, I guess I should feel honored that the chairman thinks so highly of my thoughts that he uses them as his own,” Ott said to the AJC.

Brownlow did not respond to the AJC’s questions. Lee also ignored the newspaper’s questions about who wrote the newsletter, and instead emailed a statement that called the plagiarism issue “silliness.”

“These were numbers and facts about the project provided to the MDJ by the Braves,” Lee wrote. “It is the restatement of basic facts. Your newspaper and every newspaper does the same thing every day when it restates facts provided for a story. It is sad the AJC prefers to play petty gotcha games rather than report real news.”

Edward Queen, coordinator of undergraduate studies at Emory University’s Center for Ethics, told the AJC last month that lifting entire phrases of someone else’s work without attribution is considered plagiarism. And newspapers routinely attribute numbers and facts to the people or organizations providing them.

J.K. Murphy, the MDJ’s vice president of content, told the AJC that he was happy with the way his staff handled the situation.

“I don’t know if there was an apology, but there was communication and we were assured that it wouldn’t happen again,” Murphy said.