Merrill's columns should be reinstated

Saturday, December 8, 2007 | 10:00 a.m. CST; updated 1:06 p.m. CDT, Monday, July 21, 2008

There is a growing feeling among professionals in the news business — both academics and working journalists — that John Merrill, a professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism, was incorrectly accused of plagiarism and unjustifiably punished publicly by canceling his weekly column in the Columbia Missourian. That feeling is not unanimous, but it is strong.

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