Letter to the editor: 'Very poor journalism'

Notes: "I read with interest your editorial, 'The arrival of God's love' (Dec. 2017). When I encountered Joelle Kidd's article, 'The saddest and yet the happiest Christmas' (p. 8), I was stunned. Kidd had obviously researched the Halifax Harbour tragedy in reading the book by Joyce Glasner. For you to use the same material, barely disguising your plagiarism of her article, for your own editorial is beyond belief. You really could not come up with your own ideas to illustrate your point ? I find this extremely disappointing and very poor journalism". [Text of entire article.]; Editor's Note: "The editorial used quotes from a chapter in Joyce Glasner's book, 'Christmas in Atlantic Canada', and acknowledged her book as the source. Also, the publisher received an advance copy. Fair use guidelines for quoting copyrighted/published material allow for text to be quoted -- usually 300 words is considered reasonable. Editorials or Letters from the Editor sometimes refer to, repeat or expound details of an article within the paper to bring more emphasis. focus and attention to it. Please note that the editorial also refers to another story in the paper, 'Blue Christmas services offer comfort on the longest night' (p. 5), which I also wanted to highlight in the December [2017] issue".