Here’s an excerpt from a statement by the paper’s publisher:

Throughout our history we have served the community by highlighting wrongdoing and violations of ethics when we find them. It is only right that we focus the same light on ourselves when we are wrong.

So, it’s incumbent upon me as publisher to tell you that we failed to meet our own standards and, as we would with anyone else, we are flagging it, calling it wrong and taking action.

In short, after an extensive internal review, we have determined that over the last several weeks The Courant plagiarized the work of some of our competitors. This was not our intent, but it is in fact what happened. We are taking corrective action to prevent it from happening again. We have also disciplined the individuals involved.

There’s not much detail there, so here’s a nut graf from Editor & Publisher:

Last week, Chris Powell, managing editor of The Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn., complained in a letter to Graziano that the Courant had been “misappropriating on a wholesale basis local stories published in the Journal Inquirer” since late July, according to a Journal Inquirer report. Jeffrey S. Levine, the Courant’s senior vice president and director of content, said the letter prompted the Courant’s review of its aggregation practices.

AP also has some good background. Finally, a blog maintained by former Courant staffers offers additional details, including an internal memo that describes some fairly outrageous behavior (emphasis mine):

It is and has always been our policy to offer proper attribution. Over the last few weeks, The Courant carried several news stories in which the original news source attributions were removed and credit was given to a Courant staffer.   This was plagiarism.  It happened on our watch. Disciplinary action for those involved, including ourselves, has been taken today.  We’ve put procedures in place to insure that these mistakes never happen again.

The site reports that “Six people at the Hartford Courant, including Content Manager Jeff Levine and Editor Naedine Hazell, have been disciplined by Tribune for their role in plagiarizing material from their competitors’ newspapers.”

Thanks to all who sent this in.

*Correction Sept. 15, 2009: The word plagiarism was misspelled as “plagiairsm” in this headline. Thanks to a commenter for spotting this typo. Update Sept. 16: As David pointed out in the comments, my corrected spelling of the word omitted the second “i.” Very sloppy. I apologize.

I’ve made a habit of noting belated newspaper apologies, so I went looking for this one. Low and behold, the Hartford Courant published this “Dear Tom Jefferson” editorial on April 13, 1993 :

On your 250th birthday today, it seems proper to let bygones be bygones.
During the post-Colonial years, you and The Courant didn’t see eye to eye about America’s future. On these pages, this newspaper called you an anti-Christian, a dupe and a cat’s paw of the French.
Remember The Courant’s campaign against you in the presidential election of 1800? In a series of letters signed by “Burleigh,” the publishers Barzillai Hudson and George Goodwin gave their reasons why your presidency would spell disaster. They feared that you would sacrifice the Constitution to the radical Jacobins, who were feared in their time as the Communists have been feared in our times.
One particularly gloomy outburst from Mr. Burleigh predicted the following outcome under your presidency: “Neighbors will become the enemies of neighbors, fathers of their sons, and sons of their fathers. Murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will openly be taught and practised, the air will be rent with the cries of distress, the soil soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes.”
You didn’t like Alexander Hamilton’s ideas of a central government; The Courant did. You advocated separation of church and state, which The Courant thought to be a blasphemous idea. This newspaper denounced your purchase of the Louisiana Territory. When you raised concerns about limiting voting rights to property-owning white males, Messrs. Hudson and Goodwin became all the more convinced you were a Jacobin.
Well, it’s never too late to admit a mistake. We, the 1990s stewards of the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper, have the benefit of hindsight. You turned out to be a good influence on America. In fact, some would say that you were a terrific influence on the world.
The Courant’s early publishers weren’t entirely off the mark, however. They were right to point out the contradiction, and hypocrisy, of your owning slaves and preaching freedom.
So you weren’t perfect, Tom. But The Courant wishes you happy birthday anyway. And if you were around in 1992, our hunch is that we would have championed your candidacy for president.

Wow, “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will openly be taught and practised.” Makes the coverage of the current campaign look downright genial.

Correction March 19: The words “East Windsor” were initially left out of this post. Thanks Naila, Patrick and Aldous!

Herald-Tribune corrects photo with Foley story: The Herald-Tribune published the wrong photo with its story Thursday identifying the priest who may have sexually abused former Rep. Mark Foley.
The photo was not of Anthony Mercieca, the Malta priest who Foley’s lawyer says abused Foley.
The Herald-Tribune took the photo from a section about Mercieca on the Gozo Cathedral Public Library web site. The Associated Press in Malta reports the man in the photo was a librarian.

Apology? The LA Times also ran the photo, and it issued this correction:

Priest admits fondling: An article in Friday’s Section A about a priest admitting fondling former Rep. Mark Foley as a boy appeared with a photo of a man identified as the priest, Father Anthony Mercieca. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, which was the source of the photo, says it was not of Mercieca but of a librarian taken from the Gozo Cathedral Public Library website.

As did the Hartford Courant:

A story on Page A6 Thursday ran a photo incorrectly identified as that of the Rev. Anthony Mercieca. The correct photo appears today. Link

And MSNBC.com:

MSNBC.com’s Oct. 19 coverage about sexual abuse allegations by Rep. Mark Foley included a photo distributed by the Sarasota, Fla., Herald-Tribune that incorrectly depicted Anthony Mercieca, the priest who Foley alleges abused him. The man in the photo was not Mercieca. The paper says it acquired the incorrect photo from the Web site of a Maltese, Fla., library with which Mercieca is associated. Link