AAN Association of Alternative Newsmedia

Did Matt Taibbi Lift Material From City Pages?

june 24, 2011 12:58 am

Matt Taibbi's recent piece in Rolling Stone on Michele Bachmann is giving the City Pages (Twin Cities) staff a case of deja vu.

According to the paper, the article, about Bachmann's personal upbringing and political rise, mirrors their earlier coverage, written by former staff reporter G.R. Anderson, Jr. Select passages are shown to be similar.

Taibbi's article did reference City Pages' original several times, but Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates said he deleted them "to save space." The magazine has since provided links to the City Pages version in its own story.

In an interview with City Pages, Anderson said he did not consider Taibbi's work to be plagiarism. However, he continued:

What I will say, as a graduate of the Columbia J-School, and an adjunct at the University of Minnesota J-School, I do know that if a student handed in a story with that particular lack of sourcing, not only would I give it an 'F,' I would probably put that student on academic fraud.

View full article at City Pages (Twin Cities)