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BuzzFeed Fires Staffer for 40 Instances of Plagiarism (FishbowlNY)
It looks like the magic number was 40. BuzzFeed has decided to fire its viral politics editor, Benny Johnson, after finding that many instances of plagiarism in his work. FishbowlDC A note to editorial staff sent Friday evening from BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith announced that the website has parted ways with Johnson after identifying “40 instances of sentences or phrases copied, word for word, from other sites, many of them inappropriate sources in the first place.” Capital New York Earlier last week, a pair of Twitter users called into question several of Johnson’s posts that had taken phrases and sentences from sources including About.com and National Review. Smith said Friday that editors were reviewing Johnson’s work. Poynter / MediaWire In his note to readers, Smith wrote that the plagiarism constituted “an act of disrespect to readers” and that Johnson’s editors were “deeply embarrassed and sorry” for misleading BuzzFeed’s audience. HuffPost Smith said BuzzFeed would correct every post where plagiarism was found and add editor’s notes to them. Johnson was previously with Glenn Beck’s The Blaze and has also written for Breitbart News.
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