While looking into an article of unproven allegations that Rep. Jay Lawrence posted on Facebook, I stumbled upon some interesting information about letters published right here in The Fountain Hills Times.

Some of these letters have been lifted from Facebook or from the internet, without crediting the original author. I did a quick sampling and found that; “Benghazi 1 and 2” submitted by Hugh and Helen Henry, “Track Record Pt. 1 and 2,” submitted by Bill Luzinski, as well as parts of Dorothy Wolovlek’s letters lack original content.

Jay’s post was the same as Hugh’s letter, which was the same as one posted by many sources on the internet. It would sure be easy for everyone to just cut and paste their favorite article instead of having to write out your own thoughts for submission to the newspaper.

My original quest was to try to find out whether Mr. Lawrence’s post had any truth to it. That led me to a second question; shouldn’t The Times check the submissions for plagiarism or at least require that the original authors be cited? Many of these letters contain erroneous information or outright lies. Does The Times have any responsibility to fact check the letters they publish?

Editor’s note: Those who submit letters are responsible for their own content, but are expected to utilize ethical practices.