Dowd Admits Plagiarism

One of The New York Times' stars, Maureen Dowd, has admitted to lifting verbatim the words from a Talking Points Memo post for her Sunday column, and the blogosphere has erupted in a torrent of replies. Dowd said she did not read the post in question on TPM, but rather heard the passage from a friend and then used the friend's words. Michael Calderone over at Politico raises the question of whether using a another person's words without proper credit is ethical, and criticizes The Times for not taking the issue more seriously. Glenn Greenwald at Salon also uses the controversy to point out that contrary to the popular notion of blogs being a "parasite" on journalism, bloggers and journalists actually enjoy more of a symbiotic relationship. Since admitting the mistake, Dowd has been silent, perhaps waiting until bloggers' fingers get tired from so much furious typing.