***
The following few days went by quickly for Simon. He took Olivia’s advice and kept to himself, trying to make sense of the events of the past few days. He had tried to play everything by the rules, and it had imploded catastrophically. He needed to rethink things.
As he sat in his room one afternoon, deep in thought, he realized that it was already the day when the new issue of the Weekly would be released. Despite his reluctance to have anything to do with the paper anymore, he looked up the online version out of a self-defeating curiosity.
The headline on the front page shocked him. It was a letter entitled A Note from the Editor. Simon read the opening paragraphs:
It is my unfortunate duty to inform our readers that the article from the front page of the Ridgemont Weekly of 14 April, Vice-Rector’s Son Accused of Hate Crime, was the product of plagiarism by the attributed journalist Margeaux Chamberlain. The editorial staff would like to sincerely apologize to our readers and to the original investigative journalist for allowing this article to be printed. Despite our best efforts to ensure that the content of our final newspaper was the same as what we had sent to our printers, Ms. Chamberlain had managed to access our secure files and had sent a new version, which included her plagiarized article, for publication. We deeply regret that the research was not attributed to the investigative journalist responsible for securing it, and that such actions were allowed to potentially taint the reputation of the Ridgemont Weekly.
We value the trust of our readers, and for this reason we have terminated Ms. Chamberlain from her position at the Weekly, effective immediately. While we stand by the content of the story, we strongly condemn the actions of Ms. Chamberlain. We will be following up on the story in the coming weeks with any further information.
Simon scanned the rest of the article, and saw, in the final paragraph:
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not credit the journalist responsible for the excellent work in exposing the abuse and corruption happening on campus revealed in the article, Mr. Simon Northbrook. Mr. Northbrook has been an invaluable part of the weekly for over a year, and I am extremely sorry that he has suffered through the personal and professional injustice of having his work stolen in this fashion. Mr. Northbrook’s full, vastly superior article has been published on our website.
Simon beamed, his heart soaring with pride. He realized that it was more the source of the praise than the actual content of the praise. His story was getting out there, the way he wanted to tell it. And Ian was standing up for him, even though it would embarrass the Weekly for him to do so. It was a hard knock on the reputation of the paper, but Ian was willing to take it in order to make things right with Simon. He needed to see Ian, soon.
Chapter 24
Hot Off the Press (Ridgemont University Book 1) Page 29
