Sun-Times Cuts Columnist On Plagiarism Accusation

By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter

CHICAGO-The Chicago Sun-Times dismissed a free-lance feature columnist who it accused of plagiarizing two stories from the New York Times.

Editor and Senior Vice President Dennis A. Britton told readers in a page 3 "apology to our readers'' that columnist Ken Dychtwald had copied material from two news stories in the Times. Mr. Dychtwald's Age Wave column on health and longevity trends is syndicated nationally by King Features Syndicate, a division of Hearst Corp. The Sun-Times had an independent contract with the writer.

The stories in question appeared only in the Sun-Times, according to a spokeswoman for Mr. Dychtwald.

Based in Emeryville, Calif., Mr. Dychtwald wrote two columns on aging in March and April that Mr. Britton said contained portions of two bylined stories from the Times. Mr. Britton's letter apologized for a "breach of one of the most basic tenets of journalism.'' He also apologized to the two Times reporters.

The Sun-Times also published a statement from Mr. Dychtwald, in which he said that one of the incidents was an 'inadvertent'' error by his staff. He said that in the other instance, he''mistakenly believed" that he needed to cite only a study referred to in the Times article and not the Times story itself.

Mr. Dychtwald and spokesmen for King Features couldn't be reached for comment.

(c) The Wall Street Journal