An open letter to Chronicle readers

To our readers,

It was with shock and remorse that the Chronicle management learned late last week that one of its staff members, Sports Editor Tim Haas, had plagiarized substantial portions of a column from the Fargo Forum, a North Dakota daily newspaper.

The experience has prompted a great deal of candid and heartfelt soul searching among all of our staff members. It is fair to say that every member of the Chronicle news team was deeply affected by the incident. Among journalism professionals, plagiarism is a transgression of the highest order.

Tim Haas has been a valued employee of the Chronicle. He came up through the ranks from part-time sportswriter to sports editor through non-traditional advancement and without formal training. With this in mind, we offered him a chance to keep his position after three days suspension without pay.

We have resolved to move forward from this incident with a commitment to thoroughly reexamine all of our practices to ensure they meet the highest journalistic standards. And there will be no tolerance in the future for plagiarism or any similar breaches of ethics.

We extend our sincere apologies to all of our readers for this incident. You deserve better and we intend to deliver.

Sincerely,

Rick Weaver, publisher

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