Colleague Mike Riggs has already noted a few wrinkles in the Maureen Dowd-Josh Marshall plagiarism incident.
Putting it bluntly, Riggs says: "Dowd stole some shit and admitted it." Fair enough.
In Slate, Jack Shafer has an uncharacteristically mellow view of the proceedings. After chiding, "Bad, Dowd, bad—deserving of hard time in a pillory!," Shafer proceeds to exonerate [...]

In case you missed it, Maureen Dowd flat-out plagiarized either a) Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall or b) One of her friends, who quoted Josh Marshall in a phone call with Dowd. Either way, Dowd stole some shit and admitted it. Michael Calderone reports that it doesn't really matter. From NYT spokesperson Diane McNulty:

This weekend was all about crimes and Councilmember Jim Graham talking about crimes. There were shootings in Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights, and Adams Morgan (that one involved D.C. Police), and a fatal shooting on 4th Street SE. Graham reported out the Mount Pleasant shooting for the listserv and bloggers everywhere. He's a better police spokesperson [...]