News spread quickly yesterday that Neil Harman had been caught plagiarising whilst writing for the Wimbledon Annual. I must say, this is the most surreal storyline of the entire year. If this story is news to you, then you catch up on what’s happened with the three links below. I felt compelled to write a few words. Sorry for the rambling and ranting…
1) Article on The Changeover revealing Harman’s resignation from the International Tennis Writers Association HERE
2) Article on Deadspin by Tom Ley discussing HERE
3) Article on Slate by Ben Rothenberg HERE
See above the Wimbledon annuals in question. These annuals are the first thing on my Christmas list every year. I buy them more for the fantastic photography, but it has rather tainted them for me after the revelations on Wednesday! I remember a random tweet from last year that Neil posted about the annuals and that he had already finished writing them within a few weeks of Wimbledon… CarosWrist on Twitter reposted it yesterday.
I still find it staggering that someone of his stature could do something like this and not realise it was a big deal. As a past university student, I know all about plagiarism. It was made very clear within the very first few weeks on my course what it was and if you got caught copying other people’s work, your position on the course was under serious jeopardy. All our essays and assignments had to be submitted through an online system called Turnitin that would check for any form of plagiarism. There was no way you could get away with copying someone else’s work and essentially, cheating. After my university days, I am so careful with this site about the issue of plagiarism. It’s for that reason that I use all my own photos on this blog.
I first saw the story come out on the Changeover and within the hour, Neil posted on Twitter followed by another tweet thanking people for their nice comments.
https://twitter.com/NeilHarmanTimes/status/491997625991045120
https://twitter.com/NeilHarmanTimes/status/492004716852043776
The story from Ben came out a few hours later, but some of the comments that people tweeted to Neil were hilarious. One person even congratulated Neil on his courage at coming forward and admitting his mistake… courage?! From what I could see, Neil didn’t come forward. He reacted when the story went public. In Ben’s article, Harman gave the following quote.
“I thought I tried very hard that every time I used work from someone else, I had given them the attribution that that work deserves
Rothenberg discussed in his article that there were 52 examples of plagiarism from three annuals written by Harman. There is absolutely no way with that amount of copying over multiple years that Neil didn’t know what he was doing. It’s just not possible. We all make mistakes, but 52?! And that’s before looking at annuals before 2011…
I’m very concerned this will all be swept under the carpet, which IT SHOULD NOT. We have already seen John Inverdale get away with his obnoxiously sexist comments about Marion Bartoli last year and somehow cling on to his job with the BBC presenting Today at Wimbledon. I’ve got a horrible feeling that Neil will get away with it too and still be writing for the US Open. In my opinion, plagiarism for a journalist is just the ultimate low. It is cheating and I would say is comparable to a tennis player taking performance enhancing drugs. CHEATING. The fact that Neil plagiarised on multiple occasions demonstrates to me at least, that he knew exactly what he was doing…. taking a shortcut.
It will be interesting to see if this does indeed get swept under the carpet or if he will lose his job. I am hoping the latter…
Moo's Tennis Blog 
true. all true.
I appreciate your commentary. signed, fan.
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I completely agree with everything you said!
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I agree with everything you say, apart from thinking John Inverdale should have lost his job. Though a thoughtless, poorly expressed remark, I have seen nothing else to indicate it’s indicative of an underlying sexism in Inverdale. It should not have resulted in a knee-jerk sacking just to appease those making complaints against him and wipe the BBC’s slate clean. That would be a case of sweeping something under the rug in my opinion, rather than dealing with the incident with intelligence and consideration. Inverdale should have privately apologised to Marion (which he did) and been privately disciplined (which I assume he was).
As for Harman…..i echo your prayers that this isn’t glossed over and he faces the appropriate consequences for what is a very serious breach of journalistic ethics, law and common decency! As you say, anyone who’s ever been in adult education knows from day one that plagiarism is unacceptable in any circumstances and will result in serious repercussions. It is inconceivable that a man of his experience and intelligence did not know exactly what he was doing. It is, to use your words (notice how I acknowledge the original authors contribution here Neil?!) “cheating”, and, more importantly, deliberate cheating. It is wholly unacceptable and, frankly, unbelievable.
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Thanks for the comment. I’d disagree about Inverdale, but that’s probably because I have an issue with the guy! I have always felt he has been sexist when it comes to women’s tennis and i’m pretty sure there have been complaints before.
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Fair enough if you’ve spotted that in him before. I will take your word for it. I’ve always thought he was an excellent presenter (compared to most of the clueless twerps with no particular interest in the sport they’re presenting that get wheeled out by itv etc). and a very affable guy. I think even some of the ex female pros that commentate on women’s matches do it in such a way that it seems almost patronising (anne koethavong for one.) Referring to them as “girls” and always using their first names doesn’t help!
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Was it conscious or unconscious ?
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You weren’t taught properly sir!!! In North America (Baseball at least), he you get caught cheating, it means you didn’t try hard enough!!!!!!!!
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I only heard about this news the other day. I was absolutely stunned. I’ve enjoyed reading many of Harman’s works, including his wonderful book last year and reading his insight and sort of behind the scenes tweets.
I agree that this is totally wrong but the tight schedule really doesn’t help, it seems that there has to be a quick turnaround from the tournament ending & the book being on the shelves.
It will be interesting indeed to see if he does make a return to writing tennis in The Times or, maybe (just a suggestion), he could write opinion pieces as a columnist from the sofa instead of travelling to the events, which would no doubt anger the tennis fraternity on the Tour. Like you said, you have a feeling he may return – if he does, perhaps in some sort of capacity to that affect.
Anyway, I disagree with your comments about John Inverdale. I’m glad that the BBC didn’t sack him. Firstly, he is a great broadcaster and secondly it was just one isolated comment filling air time, nothing suggests he is actually sexist. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised that the BBC overlooked the Guardian and all those that hounded the BBC with complaints.
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Thanks for the comment, Nathan! Another fan of Inverdale… again, I have to disagree. IMO his coverage on tennis has always been poor and I counted so many mistakes he made during broadcasting for ITV at the French Open and BBC during Wimbledon. Although he was marginally better this year (probably being on his best behaviour) i’ve always feel he has been sexist when it comes to womens tennis. Just my opinion, but I know i’m not the only one who can’t stand him.
Back to Harman, I enjoyed his book too. I was shocked last year when he posted on Twitter he had already finished writing the Wimbledon annual within two or three weeks of Wimby ending. It is a tough deadline, but no excuse for what he did.
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