Biz story contained unattributed content from other newspaper

A reporter for the Bangor Daily News in Maine has been suspended for five days for a business section story she wrote that included passages from a Christian Science Monitor article without attribution.

In a story in Saturday’s paper, Sharon Mack said she was mortified by the incident.

The story stated, “In a bylined story about the use of bees in Maine farming published in the April 7-8 BDN business section, Dowd said Mack included passages from a story published April 4 in the Christian Science Monitor. Both stories concerned the disappearance of bees used to pollinate crops. Mack’s story did not credit the Christian Science Monitor.

“Similarities in the stories were called to the attention of BDN editors earlier this week by a college professor in Massachusetts who had read the articles on the Internet.

“The passages in question in Mack’s story were included in six paragraphs in a 27-paragraph story.

“A subsequent investigation by editors that included an interview of Mack and review of her past work determined the apparent case of plagiarism to be isolated. Mack, who has worked for the BDN for 18 years, has issued a written apology to the Christian Science Monitor reporter who produced the story.”

Read more here.