After being alerted to apparent plagiarism by a Reflector reporter last week, the newspaper has terminated the employment of the writer.
“On June 28, The Columbian published a story written by their government reporter, Katie Gillespie. A week later, a story was also published in The Reflector. The similarities of the story, and in several paragraphs, the exact same wording, is an example of a poor decision by a member of our staff,” Lafromboise Communications President Christine Fossett wrote in an editorial that can be found on this week’s Opinion page.
The story in question was focused on recall petitions filed by County Councilor Tom Mielke. While the Reflector’s story featured original reporting, it also included verbatim passages from a story published one week prior by The Columbian.
The reporter denied intent to plagiarize the story.
The newspaper’s leadership staff will be reviewing previous stories by the reporter to determine whether or not there has been additional plagiarism, Fossett said.
“We will renew our editorial staff with additional reporters,” Fossett wrote. “They will continue to provide our readers with quality journalism as The Reflector has for decades.”
