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Plagiarism: Journalists earn their living with words, and plagiarism -- using someone else's words as if they were your own -- is, simply stated, stealing. It can take many forms. At its worst, plagiarism can be copying and pasting an article off the Internet and slapping your own byline at the top. Or subtler: Lifting a quote from a wire service story or taking credit for another person's idea....
Because of the Internet, plagiarism is easier today than ever before; it's also easier to catch. To avoid charges of plagiarism, a writer must paraphrase another's words and state the source(s); credit another person's ideas and theories; and cite any facts that are not commonly known. Be sure to label your notes carefully when consulting material in a library or online. It is possible to inadvertently plagiarize a work this way; if you do, you suffer the consequences nevertheless.
NYU Journalism Handbook for Students: Cardinal Sins http://journalism.nyu.edu/ethics/handbook/cardinal-sins/
The article goes on to give examples of plagiarism and acceptable paraphrasing. The Economist article clearly plagiarized.
