"The Globe does not tolerate plagiarism," Martin Baron, editor of the Globe, said in a statement. "Extensive passages written by the Tacoma reporter were used verbatim in the column by Borges, and that is prohibited."

A website was the first to report the plagiarism.

Ron Borges, the suspended reporter, has been a sportswriter for the Globe for 24 years. He was named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year four times since 1999.

Borge used writing from a news exchange network used by National Football League writers, where they share information in advance of football games. This is the nuance, and perhaps interesting part of the issue.

Borge’s column, like other sports notes columns in the Globe, was followed by a line saying "material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report."

The problem then wasn’t that Borges used content or information from other sources – that practice is tolerated, widespread and accepted, given that the source is credited (this piece is an example of this).

The problem was that Borges directly plagiarized the language of the original content. One may share and appropriate content appropriately, as long as the language is revised and the source is properly credited.

Source: Boston.com