By Justin Spiro and Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
December 28, 2015

On Christmas Eve, the DSR published an article detailing Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp’s questionable ethical behavior related to an article printed in the paper on December 4th chronicling Connor Cook’s friendship with fan Miranda McCoy. 

After giving the matter great thought and contemplating the consequences of what we were about to post, we labeled Sharp’s actions as plagiarism and accused the longtime writer of stealing the work of iSportsWeb blogger David Harns.

We aren’t going to rehash all of the details in our original investigative piece — go read the story if you haven’t already — but we felt we should update you on new details ascertained since the original bomb dropped.

So here is the latest …..

1) Nobody from the Free Press has responded to our emails, texts or phone messages. This includes either sports editor Kevin Bull or Sharp himself. The only reply we have received is a “No Comment” from assistant sports editor Nick Cotsonika.

 

2) We are now trying to reach the publisher of the paper to find out why the Freep has publicly refused to address the DSR report. Her name is Joyce Jenereaux. We also plan to ask the publisher of a NEWSPAPER why she misspelled the word “Detroit” in her Twitter biography. 

3) Our story has been picked up by several other media outlets since Thursday, yet even the increased national and local scrutiny hasn’t led the Freep to address this troubling situation.

Awful Announcing, Deadline Detroit, Motor City Muckraker and The Big Lead have all mentioned our original report and many Twitter media big-shots have also referenced our story while Bull and Sharp remain silent.

4) The most important piece of new information came today when David Harns broke his silence and wrote a piece for iSportsWeb about his perspective on the situation.

This is a must read for anyone interested in the story and, while it matches up pretty well with our original reporting, there is one huge nuke that we didn’t know about until earlier this afternoon.

Harns’ article clearly shows that Sharp not only stole his work but HE LIED TO HIS BOSS ABOUT IT.

Here are two screenshots from Harns’ blog post, which acts as the smoking gun confirming that Sharp deceived Bull when the accusations of plagiarism arose …..

This is incredible. Not only did Sharp commit the journalistic equivalent of a baseball manager gambling on his own sport, he then LIED to the sports editor of his paper about what he had done!!!!

So, on December 14th, Bull knew that Sharp had ripped Harns off and that Sharp hadn’t been truthful about how he gathered background information for his December 4th column.

And how did Bull handle this? He let Sharp write SEVEN additional pieces between December 15th and December 24th.

December 24th being the date that the DSR’s investigation became public!!!!

Unbelievable.

And how many columns has Sharp written since the DSR broke this story wide open?

Has Sharp been suspended by his employer? How the hell would we know? The Freep refuses to transparently address the situation.

All we can tell you is there was no sign of Drew Sharp at the Lions game on Sunday at Ford Field and our sources haven’t seen him in the Dallas area covering the Cotton Bowl between Michigan State and Alabama.

5) Not that there should be ANY debate as to whether or not this is a textbook case of plagiarism, but we contacted Fred Brown for his opinion on the matter. Brown is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists’ (SPJ) Ethics Committee.

Here is Mr. Brown’s bio.

And here is Mr. Brown’s take ….

Lazy and smug? Could there be a better definition of Drew Sharp than that? Well, one that doesn’t include “troll.”

6) In researching our original piece and in its aftermath, we have talked to close to a dozen journalism professionals, professors and teachers regarding Sharp’s behavior.

It was UNANIMOUS that this was an egregious act of plagiarism perpetrated by Sharp.  This group includes writers for the Freep, Detroit News and MLive.

7) In Harns’ post today, he suggested that people donate money to Miranda McCoy’s favorite charity so that some good can come out of this ugly mess.

We wholeheartedly agree and the DSR will be making a donation on Miranda’s behalf.

If you’d like to donate to the Chicago Shriners Hospitals for Children, you can do so by clicking this link.

And while no one mourns the wicked (Jiff Myst), we can at least honor the intent of Harns’ original story, especially since it has now been unfortunately overshadowed by Sharp’s conduct and the Freep’s refusal to properly address it.

If the paper does eventually respond to our inquiries, we will update this story accordingly.