Reply #1: What the--?

[MorningGlow]

Waitaminnit--lemme get this straight. A newspaper ran a story with the first graf under John Doe's byline, and then later ran a story with the second graf under Jane Roe's byline? Why would they do that? Why would they run the same story twice, by the way? Or...wait...was the rest of the article the same or different? Are both Doe and Roe on the newspaper payroll, or is this an AP story run twice, either intentionally or accidentally?

I must admit that I'm totally confused. Can you tell? :P

In any case, this is obviously the same graf, lightly edited. If both of these appeared in the same paper, I'd assume the reporters knew one another and the editor knew both of them, so it wouldn't be a successful theft. However, the editor is wrong--this is not "common knowledge"--the facts, yes, but the phrasing is too similar, and that's what makes it plagiarism. LOL did the two reporters boost this "common knowledge" from a single, other source? THAT I would call plagiarism.
:rofl:

Can you share more info?