SPORTSNET.CA ANNOUNCES TERMINATION OF RELATIONSHIP WITH LANDRY

At a time when there was some confusion on the grapevine regarding whether Sportsnet.ca had severed ties with Chris Landry because it believed he had committed plagiarism or because the company merely wanted to avoid being connected to a controversy even if its writer was in the right, along with the question of whether Landry’s work product had been removed from the Internet by Sportsnet.ca or at the request of Landry, Sportsnet.ca has announced that the relationship with Landry has ended due to plagiarism. The following message currently appears at the top of the site’s “Columns” page: “Portions of freelance writer Chris Landry’s columns published recently on Sportsnet.ca contained verbatim passages from columns that were previously published on nationalfootballpost.com. Mr. Landry’s columns will no longer be published on our site. Sportsnet.ca apologizes to our readers and to nationalfootballpost.com.” Wow. And so the three-day episode is over, at least from the perspective of Sportsnet.ca. Though some might still be inclined to debate time stamps and other details, Sportsnet.ca and its editors surely investigated this matter thoroughly before publicly accusing Landry of plagiarism. Landry is scheduled to appear at 4:00 p.m. on Friday with Steve Dueming of WDAE radio. We’ll post the link to the live stream tomorrow -- even though it means that the stream will likely be so jammed up that we won’t be able to access it.