Pulitzer Center Withdraws Story Over Questions of Plagiarism

The Pulitzer Center has withdrawn “The True Cost of Policing,” a story by Patrick Forrest from its website after learning that substantial reporting in the story was taken from another outlet, South Side Weekly, without attribution. In addition, reporting from WTTW and Block Club Chicago was also used without attribution.

The story was part of a project grant given to MuckRock Foundation to help three Chicago community outlets build data reporting capacity on COVID-19. The Crusader was not the direct grantee on this project.

“The Pulitzer Center sets high ethics standards for its grantees,” said Executive Director Jon Sawyer. “We regret that the report published in The Crusader in association with MuckRock failed those standards.”

The Crusader’s retraction is available online here. MuckRock Foundation’s statement is available online here.