Plagiarism incident reinforces that journalists aren't so different from bloggers

Us bloggers have been debating whether we should get the same rights and be held to the same standards as professional journalists for at least a few years now, and it seems like whenever we're about to end the discussion something else comes along to add oil to the proverbial fire.

This time the incident is the well-respected Toronto Star ripping off content from a friend of mine, writer Randy Cassingham, and publishing it in the newspaper without either fact-checking or any sort of attribution. Perhaps this isn't an uncommon incident, but this time they were caught out by a blogger who tracks newspaper gaffes and that article was picked up by industry publication Editor & Publisher:

    Of Lazy Journalists and Wanton Plagiarism

The Toronto Star? No word from them yet, but I'd like to think they'll publish some sort of retraction or apology. And journalists? Are you really going to claim that you're the professionals in this situation?