Reporter dismissed for plagiarism

A reporter on the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah's largest newspaper, has been fired after being accused of plagiarism. Shinika Sykes, who has worked for the paper since 1993, was dismissed after editors found that her story about student government spending for a music festival was phrased similarly to a story that appeared the day before in the University of Utah's student newspaper, the Daily Utah Chronicle. Sykes defended her piece, saying: "There's nothing untrue in that story. There's nothing false... I talked to everyone." By coincidence, Melissa Whitworth, a New York-based correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, was accused of plagiarising a blog, which she excused as a terrible misunderstanding. Her explanation appears to have been accepted. (Via Boston Globe)