Regret the Error

The Portland Press Herald has fired columnist Leigh Donaldson because a recent column of his “contained a substantial amount of content from a column published on AlterNet.org that was used without attribution.” The paper published a very brief editor’s note, but it doesn’t detail whether the Press Herald will examine Donaldson’s previous work for other incidents of theft.

The AlterNet.org writer whose work was plagiarised says that Donalson is in fact a repeat offender. In a story on the site, Anneli Rufus writes that, “He has also pilfered material from other reporters’ stories at AlterNet and other venues for years, as a fellow journalist friend of mine discovered via some online detective work.” Rufus then offers some examples.

Donaldson spoke with DownEast.com and “called the incident ‘regrettable’ and added, ‘I dropped the ball in terms of neglecting to give attribution. It was totally unintentional. It’s unfortunate, but I’ve written this column for more than three years, and this has never happened before. I’m usually very careful about attributing.’ ”

Let’s hope the Press Herald does the right thing by all parties and examines Donaldson’s previous work.

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