We've all had that moment when, strung out on M&Ms, Red Bull, and sleep deprivation, we churn out a crappy article by rewriting someone's work and pad it with Wikipedia blabber.
But for most of us, that ended in high school -- maybe college at the latest. For the Miami Herald, however, the practice is still going strong.
This morning the Herald ran a front-page story on how LeBron, D-Wade, and the Bosh Man are boosting real estate sales downtown. The problem is, we already wrote that article three months ago. Of course, no mention of that in the Herald re-write.
Here is a sample of our article:
LeBron James's move to the Heat isn't just enticing people back to downtown Miami. It's causing them to drop crazy money like it's 2006 all over again, just to be near him. Case in point: millionaire Russell Wright, a Tony Stark-esque defense contractor and country music impresario who is also one of the richest African-Americans in the nation.
Wright and his wife dropped $4.2 million on the penthouse atop the luxury Marquis skyscraper -- three blocks from American Airlines Arena -- the same day LeBron announced his decision. That's the most spent on any downtown apartment so far this year...
"Obviously, the Miami Heat stadium being near was a big part of our decision," says Wright.... "I figured that in the best-case scenario, LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh come together to make history right outside my house," he says. "Worst-case scenario: I'm a couple of blocks away from the stadium."
Now take a look at the Herald's piece:
This isn't even the first time that the Herald has ripped us off recently in search of a front page that people will actually read. The daily also re-wrote New Times reporter Frank Alvarado's feature from two years ago on back yard brawling in Perrine.While real estate analysts acknowledge that James' arrival in Miami won't cause a massive condo-buying stampede or heal the city's battered housing market, there is growing evidence that the new Heat lineup is spurring activity in the area around the arena.
At the Marquis, 1100 Biscayne Blvd., a penthouse unit sold for $4.2 million on July 8, the same day James announced he would be joining the Heat. That purchase was the largest amount ever paid for a condo in the downtown area, and the businessman who bought the unit admitted proximity to the arena influenced his decision.
``I'm a big basketball fan and we chose the Marquis because we like the building and the location,'' said Russell Wright, who has floor-level season tickets for the Heat games. ``At first, I was just hoping that Dwyane Wade would re-sign -- I had no clue that LeBron and Chris Bosh would join him.''
Then again, after the Herald was punked by a couple of fake Russians, maybe it's safer for them to just keep borrowing ideas from us.