ESPN anchor Will Selva has been suspended indefinitely for using a portion of Kevin Ding’s column on ESPNNews according to AOL Fanhouse.
The Orange County Register reporter first made folks aware of the situation on his blog late Tuesday evening.
Below are statements from Selva and ESPN vice president of communications Josh Krulewitz.
Will Selva:
“I made a horrible mistake and I’m deeply sorry. I did not live up to my high standards or ESPN’s. As I often do, I research local stories to use as background for writing my script. In this case, I cut and pasted the story with every intention of writing my own. I simply forgot and I completely understand why this is a major problem. I sincerely apologize for my sloppiness, especially to Kevin Ding, viewers and colleagues. In my 15 years in broadcast journalism, nothing like this has ever happened and I will make every effort to ensure it won’t happen again.”
Josh Krulewitz:
“This is something we take extremely seriously and we’ve taken appropriate action. We looked into how it happened and found that this very bad mistake was made because he should have been more thorough, even on deadline, not because he was intentionally trying to claim someone else’s work as his own.”