By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
January 17, 2016

On December 24th, this website broke the news that Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp had plagiarized the work of blogger David Harns. Subsequent to our report, Awful Announcing,  Metro Times, Crain’s Detroit, Deadline Detroit also covered Sharp’s ethical malfeasance.

All of the above sites attempted to get a comment regarding Sharp’s theft from iSportsWeb.com to no avail. As of this writing, it has been 24 days since our original report and the paper has STILL refused to address the situation; Sharp has remained publicly defiant and unapologetic.

The DSR learned that Sharp was suspended over the holidays, but there has been no confirmation as to whether that leave was paid or unpaid. We have received ZERO response from the publisher (Joyce Jenereaux), the executive editor (Robert Huschka) or the Freep’s sports editor Kevin Bull regarding any of our inquiries.

We have all been stonewalled. Detroit’s major daily has successfully ignored this huge question regarding the integrity of its staff.

Just like they did when they barely responded to Mitch Albom‘s farcical column regarding Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson watching an MSU basketball tournament game they never attended. Unless you think Albom’s slap on the wrist was appropriate punishment.

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They have completely swept this story under the rug just like they did when Albom himself was accused of plagiarism by Brian Hedger of NHL.com.

There was no self-reflection when New York Times best-selling author John Bacon basically accused former Freep columnist Michael Rosenberg of leading a witch hunt against Rich Rodriguez in the pages of “Three and Out.”

Yep, no comment from then-sports editor Gene Myers when Bacon’s book laid out the case that the Freep let a COLUMNIST with a clear axe to grind lead an investigative piece with Mark Snyder. A series of articles that eventually was largely dismissed by the NCAA.

And then there is Sharp. A disingenuous troll who once wrote a column about a no-hitter he clearly didn’t watch; covered the Pistons for years without disclosing that a close family member was an executive for the franchise in basketball operations (Scott Perry) and one of Joe Dumars‘ most trusted subordinates; and now, of course, this recent plagiarism charge.

That’s the recent legacy of the Detroit Free Press sports section; if you believe these ethical lapses are limited to the “frivolous” sports pages, then you are out of your mind.

Here is a Metro Times quote from former Freep employee Steve Neavling — a reporter who worked for the paper for six years in the newsroom — regarding the paper’s penchant for stealing the work of others …..

But if you are a regular reader of this website, you are probably asking yourself, why this synopsis now? You’re probably thinking this is all information you already knew. The Freep’s complete lack of TRANSPARENCY is nothing new.

Well, today Huschka Tweeted out the following link to the Freep’s editorial about the need for Governor Rick Snyder to be transparent regarding the Flint water crisis …..

And while the DSR agrees that Snyder should be TRANSPARENT regarding his administration’s poisoning of Genesee County’s children (not to mention the “Nerd” should also be thrown out of office and into a prison), it is absolutely hilarious that the executive editor of this morally compromised newspaper can make this demand given what is going on in his OWN SHOP.

Seriously, read the editorial. The word “TRANSPARENCY” is used FIVE times!!!!!

He owes us full transparency, and explication.

Snyder has a long rhetorical record of supporting transparency in government,. His actions have never measured up to his words, but here, he has no defensible option

Transparency, in this instance, is a conceit that’s not quite as important as abetting the search for truth.

This is one of the reasons Michigan ranks so low in national transparency assessments — and the Flint water crisis is the most garish and human example, to date, of the potential danger.

The governor’s office deserves no special carve-out from transparency.

These same motherfuckers employ at least ONE plagiarist on their staff, refuse to address the situation and then they have the chutzpah to write the following in an editorial …

There’s certainly more information still awaiting release, but the full picture won’t be revealed until the governor’s office comes clean.

No shit, Sherlocks.

And while Sharp’s plagiarism OBVIOUSLY isn’t as serious as contaminating children with lead and causing a generation of health concerns for an entire community, we aren’t going away until you give us the same thing you are demanding from the Governor whom you idiotically endorsed during the 2014 election cycle ……

FULL TRANSPARENCY!!!

You know, kind of like what Arizona State and Fox Sports did in the LAST WEEK regarding their own plagiarism scandals.