Blooming Prairie editor quits over claims of plagiarism

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Blooming Prairie editor quits over claims of plagiarism

Updated: March 8, 2012 - 9:44 PM

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A man who quit as an editor of a Minnesota weekly paper amid allegations that he plagiarized columns said Thursday that he's out of the newspaper business.

Jon Flatland resigned last week as interim managing editor of the Times of Blooming Prairie after a humor columnist based in Singapore accused him of plagiarizing his columns and those of others.

Asked Thursday whether he committed plagiarism, Flatland said, "Apparently I did but not to the extent they're saying."

Rick Bussler, publisher of the Times, said Flatland resigned before he could fire him. He said Flatland worked for him for only about four months but came with 28 years of experience that included owning newspapers in North Dakota and serving as president of the North Dakota Newspaper Association. Bussler printed a blistering apology to readers this week: "Flatland has disgraced this newspaper, this community and the entire newspaper industry."

Bussler said he was out of town last week when writer Dave Fox sent an e-mail saying that he'd discovered from Googling Flatland's columns that he had stolen items by at least a dozen writers.

ASSOCIATED PRESS