CBS Chicago copycats: ‘We regret the error’

It seemed at first to be either an astonishing coincidence or a clear case of plagiarism.

Stories posted Friday on the Chicago Sun-Times website and the CBS Chicago website about the same incident — police responding to chaos at an overcrowded West Side night club — contained similar or identical passages in at least eight paragraphs.

The Sun-Times story, written by Victoria Johnson and Lauren FitzPatrick, was posted first and updated at 9:41am. The CBS story, which had no byline (but included the link to a Newsradio audio report by Mike Krauser), was posted at 9:51am.

Adding further to the mystery was that certain words and phrases from the Sun-Times version were altered for no particular reason in the CBS version. And although it gave no credit to the Sun-Times, the CBS version attributed one fact near the end of the story to the Chicago Tribune.

I contacted the news directors of both CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 and the all-news combo of WBBM-AM (780) and WCFS-FM (105.9) for an explanation. It turned out that neither of their news operations is directly responsible for the creation of news content on the CBS Chicago website. That’s handled, I was told, by the CBS Local digital team.

“The copy used in this story came from the Sun-Times Media Wire, to which we subscribe,” Ron Gleason, director of news and programming at Newsradio 780 and 105.9, told me. “The poster, through an inadvertent oversight, left off the copyright tag at the bottom, which already has been corrected.  We regret the error, and appreciate your letting us know.”

Lo and behold, by Monday morning, the credit line was there.


Here are the two versions as they originally appeared:

Chicago Sun-Times: Chaos at overcrowded W. Side club
BY VICTORIA JOHNSON AND LAUREN FITZPATRICK Staff Reporters February 3, 2012 9:26AM
Updated: February 4, 2012 9:41AM

When police arrived at a dangerously overcrowded club in the Garfield Park neighborhood early Friday, they found utter pandemonium that included a fight, two car crashes and a man shooting wildly into the air.
Police were called about 1 a.m. to Brick’s Sports Bar and Grill, 4422 W. Madison St., after a patron called to complain of dangerous overcrowding, Harrison District Lt. Steven Sesso said. When officers arrived they were not allowed inside and found the doors were locked, trapping all the patrons inside.
Someone eventually got the doors open and patrons streamed out, Sesso said. Police counted 273 people leaving the 99-person-capacity club, but had to stop their count because a man was firing shots in a parking lot across the street.
The man then got into his 1998 Lexus and drove off, Sesso said. He crashed in the first block of South Kostner Avenue and took off on foot, escaping arrest, though police recovered a gun in the car.
No one was shot.
At the same time, two women were fighting and one got in her car and tried to leave, Sesso said. Several patrons tried to stop her, resulting in her crashing into several parked cars and hitting one patron, who was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition.
Alexis Dumas, 29, of the 800 block of North LaTrobe Avenue, was arrested and charged with aggravated DUI, a felony, misdemeanor DUI, and driving on a suspended license, police said.
“This location is a problem in our district,” Sesso said, adding that police had been called there on several other occasions because of overcrowding.
He said the bar has a liquor license that requires serving alcohol be secondary to another activity, in this case serving food. When police searched the bar, they found no evidence of any food being served except a single box of chicken wings in the refrigerator.
The owner, Bettie Jean Johnson of Chicago, was ticketed for reckless conduct for locking the doors and for violating the liquor license, Sesso said. He said she had been cited before for the same license violations.
Johnson did not return messages left at her home for comment.
Sesso said he is planning to ask the state Fire Marshal to inspect the club, though by law it can continue to operate unless the city Liquor Control Commission revokes its license.
State liquor officials say that Brick’s current license is valid. But Jennifer Lipford, a spokeswoman for the city’s Liquor Control Commission said her department will ask at a hearing for the license to be revoked.
Meanwhile, the commission was investigating whether Johnson was operating with the correct license.
Buildings department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said the property was cited on Jan. 26 after inspectors found improper clasps and sidebolts on outer doors. They couldn’t get inside, though, he said, so he didn’t knowwhether conditions inside were unsafe. His department may close buildings immediately if code violations pose safety hazards, he said.
Chicago Fire Department Richard Rosado said the case was being handled by a task force with the Chicago Police Department. Fire officials will conduct surprise inspections on the bar, he said, to count patrons.
Rosado could not immediately say Friday whether Brick’s had prior trouble with overcrowding.

CBS Chicago: Utter Chaos Erupts At Overcrowded West Side Nightclub
February 3, 2012 9:51 AM
CHICAGO (CBS) — Police discovered complete chaos when they were called to a West Side bar early Friday morning.
As WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports, the utter pandemonium at Bricks’ Sports Bar and Grill, at 4422 W. Madison St. in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, included a fight, two car crashes and a man shooting a gun wildly into the air.
Police were called to the bar around 1 a.m., after a patron called to complain the venue was dangerously overcrowded.
When officers arrived, they were not allowed inside, and the doors were locked. All the patrons were trapped in the bar.
Eventually, someone got the doors open and many people left, police said. Officers counted 273 people leaving the 99-person capacity bar.
But the officers had to abandon their count early, because they found a man firing a gun in the parking lot across the street.
The man quickly got into his 1998 Lexus and sped off, police said. He crashed at 10 S. Kostner Ave. and fled on foot.
Police did not catch the man, but they did recover a gun in the car. No one was injured by the man’s gunfire.
At the same time, two women were fighting and one got in her car and tried to leave, police said. Several patrons tried to stop her, resulting in her crashing into several parked cars and hitting one patron, who was taken Stroger Hospital of Cook County in good condition.
The woman was arrested for driving under the influence, and police are seeking felony charges.
“This location is a problem in our district,” Harrison District Lt. Steven Sesso said, adding that police had been called there on several other occasions because of overcrowding.
He said the bar has a Consumption on Premises-Incidental Activity License, which requires that serving alcohol be secondary to another activity, in this case serving food. When police searched it, they found no evidence of any food being served except a single box of chicken wings in the refrigerator.
The owner, identified by the Chicago Tribune as Bettie Johnson, 56, of the West Side, was cited for reckless conduct for locking the doors and was cited for violating the liquor license, police said. Sesso said she had been cited before for the same license violations.
Sesso said he is planning to ask the Illinois State Fire Marshal to inspect the club, though by law it can continue to operate unless the state Liquor Control Commission revokes its license.