In the age of the Internet and Facebook, people routinely read and pass along information and articles, regardless of the truth. It is no different than some of the ridiculous urban legends and myths that we heard and passed along in our younger days. Passing along information on social media is one thing, but publishing an article or submitting a letter to a published entity such as The Moultrie Observer is different. A letter to the editor of a newspaper should reflect the writer’s opinions in his or her own words. These submissions are held to a higher standard than that of Facebook and other social media. 

Having said all this, the letter to the editor from Doug Borkowski entitled “Left’s Efforts Reek of Intolerance” is copied word-for-word from an internet source. The four paragraphs in the letter appear verbatim in a site called “Unsilenced Majority.” I did not find Mr. Borkowski’s name among the editors or authors on that site, so I assume he was not the original author. By the way, I completely disagree with the content of the “letter,” but that is not the point. The point is that a letter to the editor cannot simply be copied and pasted from another source. Failure to identify the original author of that work constitutes plagiarism. 

Maybe Mr. Borkowski is unaware of the difference in standards between social media and a publication. If so, I am therefore inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. My purpose here is not to embarrass him but to enlighten him and others to difference in standards.

Butch Moser

Hahira, Ga.