I’m on to something here.

Below are two links to two articles. I read the CNN.com article, from the Associated Press, earlier today. Just now, I read the FoxNews.com article, which apparently was written by FoxNews.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/05/people.rosie.odonnell.ap/index.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,363455,00.html

What caused me to take note was some very similar wording. If you take a look at the last few paragraphs on FoxNews, they’re almost exactly verbatim from the CNN.com article. Are they not? Help me people!

The only difference…Fox News decided the more important news to report was that Rosie O’Donnell thinks Elisabeth Hasselbeck is “very attractive.” Not until halfway through do we find the alleged plagiarism.

PLAGIARISM

the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.

-Dictionary.com

See? That’s not plagiarism since I credited dictionary.com with the words I stole. But in my opinion, prefacing the second part of the story with “O’Donnell told AP Radio…” doesn’t cut it. That paragraph is a bit suspiciously paraphrased as well, but that’s apparently neither here nor there.

And for the record, I typically have nothing against Fox. I accept that they take a conservative stance, whether they acknowledge it or not. That’s what I expect, and that’s generally what I get.