The Post's editorial board unanimously stands behind Associate Editor Ryan Dunn's decision to fire Andrew Zucker for plagiarism.
Zucker's column contained unacceptable similarities to a piece published seven days earlier by Arianna Huffington on HuffingtonPost.com (The West Virginia Mining Disaster and the Financial Crisis Have the Same Root Cause
April 12). To say the pieces were framed similarly grossly understates the extent to which both the text and ideas were ripped from Huffington's work without attribution.
Although The Post strives to train and educate aspiring journalists, we will not tolerate intellectual dishonesty. Our business relies on public trust, and we take that charge seriously. Post policies, which Zucker signed, list plagiarism as cause for termination.
As noted plagiarist and Vice President Joe Biden might put it, we consider plagiarism a big fucking deal.
While a Post columnist, Zucker was given wide latitude to publically examine and criticize the actions of others. We held him to the same standard on April 21, when Dunn explained why Zucker's column would no longer appear. Sweeping the affair under the rug would compromise our commitment to transparency, no matter how ugly the truth might be.
That's why we're publishing Zucker's letter today. We know Zucker copied information from Arianna Huffington without attribution. We know what he did wasn't right. We know firing him was the right call. And we'd do it again.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors.
4
Opinion
