NBC News published nearly a dozen articles with plagiarized material, the company announced on May 2.
NBC said a review uncovered 11 articles written over the last year by a reporter “that did not meet our standards for original material.”
In each article, the passages that were plagiarized were removed and an editor’s note was added, according to NBC.
The company’s statement did not name the reporter or link to the articles.
Editor’s notes now at the top of the articles state that NBC determined that passages in earlier versions of the articles “were not properly attributed to their original source and did not meet our standards for original material.”
Passages were pulled from The Associated Press and WESH-TV, among other outlets, without attribution, according to an Epoch Times review of previous versions of the articles.
The offending passages are still contained in versions of the articles republished by other websites like Yahoo!.
Reporters that are caught plagiarizing are typically fired.
Multiple phone calls to NBC’s press office went unanswered and no voicemails could be left because the mailbox was full. Emailed questions weren’t returned.
Messages to Finn did not receive responses.
Rod Hicks, director of ethics and diversity at the Society of Professional Journalists, told The Epoch Times in an email that integrity is essential for journalists.
“Any professional journalist who gathers information and disseminates it to the public should be guided by that tenet in all aspects of their job. That includes producing original work and not passing off someone else’s words as their own. Any ethical infraction can potentially harm the reputation of the journalist who committed it, their employer and the press in general,” he said.
Based in Washington, Finn graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a bachelor of arts in 2016 and a year later earned a master’s in public affairs and journalism from American University.
Before she graduated, she worked for the Washington Post as an intern. She later held jobs with WJLA-TV and Bloomberg before starting with NBC in July 2021.
“Teaganne Finn worked briefly at The Post through a program that allows American University students to embed in our newsroom. She did not write or publish any stories during her time with us. She called police departments, obtained court records and filed public information requests to assemble leads for reporters to pursue,” a Washington Post spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email.
WJLA-TV and Bloomberg did not respond to requests for comment.
