Star Tribune reviewing writer's work after similarities reported

(AP)- Editorial page editor Susan Albright said the writer, Steve Berg, would not write during the review. She cited two editorials, one from Nov. 10 and one from March 27, that contained phrases from or similarities to commentaries in the New Yorker by Hendrik Hertzberg.

"We want you to know that we are taking this matter very seriously," Albright wrote in a note to readers published Thursday. "We have an obligation to everyone involved to be fair and deliberate in evaluating this; it is too serious a matter to jump to any conclusions without a thorough review."

In an interview, Albright declined to comment beyond the editor's note except to say that she hoped to complete the review "with dispatch." Berg, who has worked at the Star Tribune for 30 years, said he couldn't comment during the review.

Similarities between a Nov. 10 Star Tribune editorial and Hertzberg's Nov. 6 commentary were first brought to light in a Nov. 11 posting on the Twin Cities-based conservative blog Power Line, long critical of the Star Tribune for having what they say is a liberal bias.

Hertzberg, in a Nov. 6 piece criticizing President Bush and the Republican Congress, included this line: "(R)epeated efforts to suppress scientific truth; a set of economic and fiscal policies that have slowed growth, spurred inequality, replenished the ranks of the poor and uninsured, and exacerbated the insecurities of the middle class."

A passage from the Star Tribune's Nov. 10 editorial on the same subject read: "Then there's the mounting deficit, the Katrina aftermath, the constant suppression of scientific truth, and the economic policies that exacerbate inequality, heighten middle-class anxiety and expand the ranks of the poor and uninsured."

In an earlier note explaining that incident, Albright said the writer took notes on the Hertzberg piece with the intention of either directly quoting or attributing material to him; but later failed to distinguish which parts were direct quotes and which were paraphrased ideas.

Albright didn't identify Berg until her second editor's note. She said she had decided to identify him so other writers weren't the subject of speculation.

In the second incident, also brought to the paper's attention by Power Line, a March 27 Star Tribune editorial on electoral college reform struck many of the same themes as a March 6 Hertzberg piece.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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