Thunderstorms now heading through eastern part of the state

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

(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.

Gallery

Business and Economic News

Patrick Condon, Associated Press

Author

The Star Tribune said it was reviewing a
year's worth of work by one of its editorial page writers after
finding two of his editorials contained similarities to the work of
another writer.


Star Tribune reviewing writer's work after similarities reported

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox