Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what is plagiarism? Theft, say some editors and bloggers who have noted that the Hartford Courant has lifted some stories from other papers with and sometimes without attribution. In some cases stories have been attributed to source newspapers and then appear later minus the attribution under the byline of Courant staff. Some of the resulting furor may be found in the commentary section of a post written by Courant columnist Rick Green . Doug Hardy, an associate editor at the Journal Inquirer, comments: "If you search the Courant's site for "Journal Inquirer" or "Bristol Press" or several others, you'll pull up a listing of numerous stories from numerous towns where our work has been systematically copied and pasted, occasionally with minor alterations and a smattering of additional attribution from the publication. The full story is being used - not just the headline and/or first sentence and a link back...