That was quick.
Amy Lee, the Huffington Post writer suspended for “overaggregating,” is back after serving just a one-week suspension — so much for an investigation into aggregation practices.
Lee was suspended after Advertising Age’s Simon Dumenco pointed out that Lee thoroughly paraphrased a story he wrote and did not attribute his article until near the bottom of her piece. The result was that just 57 readers clicked through from HuffPost to Dumenco’s article.
Dumenco and others have pointed out that HuffPo has a bad track record with aggregation, with writers often guilty of the same errors Lee made.
Also read: HuffPo Aggregation Causing Lots of Aggravation
HuffPo’s response – suspending Lee – was met with much criticism in the media world for that very reason. Why suspend one writer when it seems to be part of the culture?
HuffPo’s Executive Business Editor Peter Goodman wrote a letter to Dumenco in which he said criticism of Lee’s post was “valid,” that that there is “zero tolerance” for such aggregation practices at HuffPost and that Lee would be “suspended indefinitely.” He added that the site would “redouble [its] efforts to make sure our reporters and editors understand that this sort of thing is unambiguously unacceptable.”
So far there has been no further comment on the subject as Lee continues to be treated as an isolated offender.
I guess they decided reporters got the message.