September 26, 2007
Hey Pete Fiutak … How About A Little Credit?!
College Football News' Pete Fiutak took, or stole, a page from the Reporter's Guide To Hacking when he took, or stole, an idea we had here on DumpDorrell, The Caretaker Plan, and used it in his most recent column about UCLA football without giving us credit. Why reporters feel they need to do this, when they have the job, the salary and the audience, is beyond our comprehension. What are they thinking … that their readers will suddenly realize that they're hacks?? Here is the piece in Fiutak's latest column (highlights are his):
Allegedly, The Caretaker Plan also includes dumping me for writing this sucky column … What’s the toughest place to coach in America? Alabama? Sure, the pressure is ridiculous, but it’s like that everywhere in the SEC. Notre Dame? Sort of, but outside of a few academic issues, Charlie Weis has every advantage in the book. No, the toughest place to be a head football coach right now is at UCLA.
Nowhere else in his column does he reference The Caretaker Plan nor where he got that reference from. We at DumpDorrell came up with The Caretaker Plan … how about a little credit Pete?! Just to lock down the evidence: notice how he capitalizes The Caretaker Plan, as we did being that we formalized the name of our plan, AND how he uses the word "dumping" in the same sentence … all while writing about the UCLA football head coaching position. Coincidence?? Hardly. Look, this isn't a fire and brimstone, picket outside the offices of College Football News kind of deal. What he did is just plain wrong and it rubs us the wrong way. Use our ideas, just give us credit. We aren't going to police anything or send letters from lawyers … just give us credit. It's not hard to do, we do it all the time - note how in our Caretaker Plan post we give credit to Steve Mason for coming up with The Mason Plan, the forerunner to our plan.
Pete, just give people credit is all we are saying. Be a little more professional … for Pete's sake.

















2 Comments on Hey Pete Fiutak … How About A Little Credit?!
September 26, 2007
John @ 2:54 pm:
I googled ‘caretaker plan’ and sure ’nuff your site came up right after a link about Iraq… and was one of the few refering to sports.
If I respected Fiutak’s writing, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was an inside comment specifically to the DD editors … but I think he’s just a hack.
I mean, he compared himself to Dorrell - ’nuff said.
DumpDorrell @ 3:30 pm:
John .. nice! Thanks for pointing that out. We are #2 on the google search for ‘Caretaker Plan’ as you said. That is because we have turned a few SEO tricks on this site and it’s paid off. Google is by far the best search engine in our estimation. Google weighs recent pages heavily it appears, not more than authority however (and we have a pretty good authority ranking - and that is something Morgan Center or Dorrell lackeys cannot control), so that searches remain relevant and gives visitors relevant searches. But to be #2 right now on ‘Caretaker Plan’ is pretty amazing given that the key words were used for Iraq! No doubt over time we will slip down the list and off the front page.