Ever since a blogger discovered an unattributed paragraph in Maureen Dowd’s NY Times column yesterday, readers around the country wondered if the paper would take action over the mistake. Earlier this afternoon, the Times ruled “there is no need to do anything further.”
Over at Politico, Michael Calderone reports that Times spokesperson Diane McNulty told him the paper corrected the error and would not take any other action.
Here’s the email message from McNulty: “There is no need to do anything further since there is no allegation, hint or anything else from Marshall that this was anything but an error. It was corrected. Journalists often use feeds from other staff journalists, free-lancers, stringers, a whole range of people. And from friends. Anyone with even the most passing acquaintance with Maureen’s work knows that she is happy and eager to give people credit.”