It would have been nice to get some credit ...

Hanford Sentinel "Hanford History" article posted Dec. 14, 2013... for this short Hanford Sentinel story on the Marchbanks track posted Dec. 14. 

Two things bother me about this piece: 1)They cut and pasted my work without appropriate credit and 2) The Sentinel has all but ignored the track's history over the last few decades. 

Equally annoying is that even though there's only slight rewriting of my original work, they've slapped their own copyright notice on the story and are offering the Indycar photo reprint for sale. All of my work is published under a Creative Commons license that allows others to "copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially" as long as the work is attributed" ... "You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. ..."

This photo The Sentinel posted with the article is apparently of Darlington Raceway, reader Jim Thurman noted in the comments of this post.I published my stories under Creative Commons rather than traditional copyright because I pursued this as a collaborative endeavor and included a lot of other sources, particularly quotes from fan forums. That's why I have so many links to third-party sites to give credit where credit is due.

My frustration is magnified because at the beginning of this Marchbanks project I tried several times to talk to editors at The Sentinel, with no response. My original idea was to pitch a history project for them to pursue and publish, and offer my help if they wanted/needed it. Not that I'm anything special, but it'd be nice if the hometown paper were to invest a little bit in telling the story of this memorable track. The Marchbanks history retains high interest among many people -- I  know because I continue to get lots of traffic to my stories, years after they were first published. This isn't the first time my Marchbanks stuff has been republished verbatim elsewhere. But it's the first time an entity that should know better isn't following pretty basic rules for crediting creative work. 

OK, on the plus side, the Sentinel piece included a photo I have never seen that shows the track from the entry into Turn 1. The caption doesn't provide details, so I'll try to dig deeper. But the presence of what appears to be infield seating would indicate it likely was one of the NASCAR Grand National races. Any of my readers have any idea when this photo was taken?

Update on Sunday, December 22, 2013 at 4:59 PM by Logan Molen

Reader Jim Thurman posted a comment to this post indicating the photo of the stock cars barreling through Turn 1 is in fact of Darlington Raceway, not Marchbanks, as The Sentinel story suggested.

I've updated my original post to reflect Jim's information.

And the search for good photos from any of the Grand National races at Marchbanks continues.

Comments

[Frank Johnson]

Left as a comment on the Sentinel's website, 12/18/13, at around 10:15AM. (We'll see if they post it.)
"OK. This needs to be responded to. This paper has been accused of plagiarism. Reading loganmolen.com, this newspaper either plagiarized this person, or the opposite happened. There are far, FAR, too many consecutive words and punctuation for this to be a "mistake". An explanation is demanded."
By the way, I don't think the "opposite happened".

[Linda Green, Sentinel managing editor]

The article was submitted to the Hanford Sentinel through the Facebook page, "You might be from Hanford, Ca if ..." , as is indicated at the bottom of the article. It was not written by a staff reporter, but run as it was submitted.

We were unaware it was from this website and will give credit online and in a subsequent print edition.

We struggle constantly with our work being taken from the our website despite the copyright you mentioned so we understand the frustration of not getting an attribution.

[Logan Molen]

Thank you, Frank and Linda.

I appreciate the Sentinel's quick response and commitment to transparency and quality journalism. That's too often lacking in media today (particularly broadcast, but I digress). We all make mistakes and we should celebrate those who own up to them in pursuit of trust and accuracy.

Onward!

[Jim Thurman]

Logan, the photo isn't Hanford Motor Speedway, it's Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.

[Logan Molen]

Thanks, Jim, for setting things straight.

I thought some stuff looked odd, such as the grandstand and the banking in Turn 1. I'll update the post accordingly.