Colin Covert copied unique phrases from Pauline Kael and others as far back as 2009, according to investigation by the paper
A film critic for the Minneapolis Star Tribune has resigned from his post after editors discovered that he had plagiarized the work of other critics from as far back as 2009 and as recently as Nov. 1.
Colin Covert, who had been a staff writer with the paper for over 30 years, was found in an investigation to have used the unique language of other critics in his own movie reviews, Star Tribune editor Rene Sanchez and managing editor Suki Dardarian wrote in a statement .
Covert’s plagiarism came to the attention of the Star Tribune when a reader pointed out that the phrase “self-glorifying masochistic mush” was used in both Covert’s 2009 review of the musical “Nine” but also first appeared in a review from Pauline Kael in 1974. Editors then noticed that several other Kael expressions from her other reviews also appeared in Covert’s review of “Nine,” including “archaic big-musical circus,” “comic-strip craziness” and “stardust is slightly irritating.
