The Cooks Source Brouhaha

An earlier version of this piece might have made it seem that we cast doubt on the validity of the Cooks Source magazine story.

As people who have had works from our other websites stolen and uncredited, let us state unequivocally that it is a horrible, horrible feeling to have one’s work plagiarized. It is something we would not wish on anyone.

The plagiarism scandal surrounding Cooks Source magazine continues to heat up. (Is it possible to write anything about this free of puns?) A blogger named Monica Gaudio claims the food publication lifted a years-old blog entry of hers and reprinted it in the magazine without a word of thanks or a word of anything for that matter.

When alerted to this, Gaudio asked the magazine for a printed apology and compensation in the form of a donation to a prestigious journalism school, but was instead sent a nasty email from its editor, Judith Griggs, saying, amongst other things, that the Internet is public domain, and that it was she, Gaudio, who should pay the magazine for re-editing her sloppy piece and who should be thankful to have something to place in her “portfolio”.

There are some peculiar aspects to this story, though.

If Cooks Source deals with the New England food scene, why is its website registered in Canada?

Why is it that Cooks Source has a Facebook page that contains no link back to its website?

In her letter to Monica Gaudio, Judith Griggs claims to have edited Housitonic (sic) Home magazine. Yet a quick search of the Google appears to produce no results for either Housitonic Home or Housatonic Home.

If Griggs is such a great editor, why did she misspell Housatonic?

How come nobody seems to be able to contact Gaudo or Griggs?

Update: A Twitter user has informed us that the advertisers in back issues of Cooks Source posted on Facebook are real businesses.