Smart Growth Critic Accused Of 'Journalistic Fraud'

23 October 2003 - 5:00am

The Columbus Dispatch will no longer publish opinion pieces by Samuel Staley following an accusation that he "borrowed ideas".

"The president of the Buckeye Institute, Samuel R. Staley, admitted that the research and text were prepared by a public-relations firm in Alexandria, Va., and sent to people who would use the information in [opinion] columns... As a result of this journalistic fraud, The Dispatch no longer will publish columns submitted by Hall or Staley... In an Aug. 18 column, Joshua C. Hall, a director of research at the Buckeye Institute... suggested that Ohio privatize more of its work force to save money... An interested reader provided...proof that some of what Hall purported to be his own work was eerily (and sadly) similar to the views of Geoffrey F. Segal of the Reason Public Policy Institute."

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, October 5, 2003