A Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist has been fired for what the newspaper said was her "substantial duplication" of a Washington Post story.
"We place our trust in our reporters and columnists that if they use material from another source, they identify that source," president and publisher Richard Connor said in explaining the dismissal of Katie Sherrod."A reading of the column and the Washington Post story leaves no doubt that they are similar beyond coincidence."
Sherrod, 44, said her firing Monday was in retaliation for a column she wrote criticizing the paper for publishing the name of the woman William Kennedy Smith is accusing of raping. The paper denied the allegation.
Sherrod's dismissal is the latest of a recent spate of accusations of plagiarism. A few reporters, including one for the Post, and at least one educator have been fired or disciplined.
At issue is Sherrod's use in a June 19 column of material that appeared in the Post in December, an anecdote about worker ants at the National Zoo and how they kept tending their queen ant even after she was accidentally beheaded. The Post and an editor from California alerted the Star-Telegram.