MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Star Tribune said it was reviewing a year's worth of work by one of its editorial page writers after finding two of his pieces contained similarities to the work of a writer at The New Yorker magazine. Steve Berg, who has worked at the Star Tribune for 30 years, will not be writing for the paper during the review, said editorial page editor Susan Albright. She cited two editorials, one from Nov. 10 and one from March 27, that contained phrases from or similarities to commentaries by The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg.
"We want you to know that we are taking this matter very seriously," Albright wrote in a note to readers published Thursday. "We have an obligation to everyone involved to be fair and deliberate in evaluating this; it is too serious a matter to jump to any conclusions without a thorough review."
Albright did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking further comment. Berg said he couldn't comment during the review.
Similarities between a Nov. 10 Star Tribune editorial and Hertzberg's Nov. 6 commentary were first brought to light in a Nov. 11 posting on the Twin Cities-based conservative blog Power Line, which has long accused the Star Tribune of having a liberal bias.
Hertzberg, in a Nov. 6 piece criticizing President Bush and the Republican Congress, included this line: "(R)epeated efforts to suppress scientific truth; a set of economic and fiscal policies that have slowed growth, spurred inequality, replenished the ranks of the poor and uninsured, and exacerbated the insecurities of the middle class."
A passage from the Star Tribune's Nov. 10 editorial on the same subject read: "Then there's the mounting deficit, the Katrina aftermath, the constant suppression of scientific truth, and the economic policies that exacerbate inequality, heighten middle-class anxiety and expand the ranks of the poor and uninsured."
In an earlier note, Albright said the writer took notes on the Hertzberg piece with the intention of either directly quoting or attributing material to him, but later failed to distinguish which parts were direct quotes and which were paraphrased ideas.
Albright didn't identify Berg until her editor's note Thursday. She said she had decided to identify him so other writers weren't the subject of speculation.
Power Line also brought to the paper's attention a March 27 Star Tribune editorial on electoral college reform that struck many of the same themes as a March 6 Hertzberg piece.
