Chris Anderson’s Sourcing Slip-Up

By Jason Boog 

Yesterday the Virgina Quarterly Review discovered a few Wikipedia passages included in the text of Chris Anderson’s new book, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price,” without attribution.

Anderson, who also edits Wired magazine, said the final process was rushed: “As you’ll note, these are mostly on the margins of the book’s focus, mostly on historical asides, but that’s no excuse. I should have had a better process to make sure the write-through covered all the text that was not directly sourced.” His publisher added a note yesterday, saying they were “completely satisfied” with his explanation. Edward Champion and Carolyn Kellogg have continued the investigation.

Today on mediabistro.com’s Morning Media Menu, GalleyCat editor Jason Boog and Agency Spy editor Matt Van Hoven discussed this sourcing problem with Lusty Lady writer Rachel Kramer Bussel.