The Chronicle posted an unusual story from D.C. columnist Cragg Hines earlier in the week.
The story was unusual because it was not about Washington or American politics, presumably the D.C. columnist’s beat, nor was it about a topic directly relevant to the Chronicle‘s Houston-area readership. It was a story about Gazprom’s efforts to build a stunning skyscraper in staid St. Petersburg.
Interestingly, Matt Bramanti discovered that Washington Post Moscow reporter Peter Finn wrote a lengthy story on that very topic just a few days earlier. Indeed, a careful read of both stories suggests that Hines took a fair amount of inspiration from Finn’s well-crafted story, without acknowledging it.
It’s not really plagiarism — unlike his colleague Rick Casey who once did plagiarize from the Washington Post, Hines didn’t actually lift whole phrases. However, it is a lazy effort that never should have made it past a good editor or bureau chief.
If the Chronicle D.C. bureau can’t do better than that — or this score-settling attack piece on Tony Snow — the newspaper really needs to consider shuttering the operation and redeploying the resources locally.
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