Kaufman went on to note the “relative positions in the journalistic community between Salon and Truthdig and between Mr. Ketcham (and his spouse) and Mr. Hedges.” Because of these “relative positions” in the hierarchy of journalism, Kaufman stressed that “the issue of commercial motives cannot be disregarded,” and cited without elaboration “possible personal, economic and commercial gain that would be derived by Salon and Mr. Ketcham from damaging the reputation of Truthdig, Mr. Hedges, the Nation and other competitive publications and authors.” Nowhere in her letter did she address the Postman correction and its implications.

In the acknowledgements to Hedges’s most recent book, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, published by Nation Books, Hedges thanks Nation magazine editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel. “And the Nation Institute,” he writes in the acknowledgements, “has been my home and my supporter since I left the New York Times.” (The Nation magazine and the Nation Institute are separate entities.)

Among his Nation Institute colleagues is Naomi Klein, who on at least one occasion published something that reads a lot like a subsequent Hedges item. Compare a piece by Klein in The Nation concerning America’s international influence as it relates to climate change, published on October 14, 2009, with a piece by Hedges on the same subject, published at Truthdig four days later, on October 18, 2009. The lifting here is subtler than in other examples, but the ideas in each sentence are similar and the words in several cases exactly the same:

Klein:

So while the United States increased its carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels, the European Union countries reduced theirs by 2 percent. … Flash forward to the high-stakes climate negotiations that just wrapped up in Bangkok. The talks were supposed to lead to a deal in Copenhagen this December that significantly strengthens the Kyoto Protocol. Instead, the United States, the EU and the rest of the developed countries formed a unified bloc calling for Kyoto to be scrapped and replaced. Where Kyoto set clear and binding targets for emission reductions, the US plan would have each country decide how much to cut, then submit its plans to international monitoring (with nothing but wishful thinking to ensure that this all keeps the planet’s temperature below catastrophic levels). And where Kyoto put the burden of responsibility squarely on the rich countries that created the climate crisis, the new plan treats all countries the same.

Hedges:

The United States, after rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, went on to increase its carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels. The European Union countries during the same period reduced their emissions by 2 percent. But the recent climate negotiations in Bangkok, designed to lead to a deal in Copenhagen in December, have scuttled even the tepid response of Kyoto. Kyoto is dead. The EU, like the United States, will no longer abide by binding targets for emission reductions. Countries will unilaterally decide how much to cut. They will submit their plans to international monitoring. And while Kyoto put the burden of responsibility on the industrialized nations that created the climate crisis, the new plan treats all countries the same.

Asked about this, Hedges wrote, “These facts may indeed have come from Klein, I do not remember, but the sentences are not copied from Klein.” When contacted, Klein said she had no comment.

In an e-mail, vanden Heuvel wrote that, after hearing about this story, the magazine conducted a review of “some of his pieces for the Nation, and we were satisfied with their editorial integrity. … We did not find evidence of plagiarism in any Nation article under his byline that we reviewed. Indeed, we believe that his reporting for the magazine has been rigorous and essential to the public debate.”

Hedges, also in an e-mailed response—he declined to be interviewed on the phone—said that the plagiarism allegations at Harper’s were the work of a single editor, Theodore Ross. “An internal memo written by an editor at Harper’s, I believe it was Ted Ross, made this charge about a draft that was in the process of being annotated,” stated Hedges. “As I told Ross at the time, some hard statistics in my story, as well as some of the inner workings by the political boss of Camden, George Norcross, came from a three part series on Camden in The Philadelphia Inquirer.”

“It has always been my experience working with editors over many years that we work together to fully source and vet an article,” Hedges continued. “Thus, at this stage a charge of plagiarism was at once shocking and unwarranted. … The final, published material is what counts.” Hedges reiterated in his e-mail that “I believe we are speaking about a charge made by one editor, Ross, who is no longer with Harper’s.”

I asked Ross about this claim. “Hedges is simply incorrect when he says I was responsible for the plagiarism allegations against him at Harper’s,” Ross told me. “As he knows, a staff fact-checker, the editor-in-chief, the literary editor, and the publisher jointly concluded that his story could not be published. Most important, the final decision to withdraw the piece on these grounds was not mine. Harper’s editor-in-chief Ellen Rosenbush made that decision, with the approval of the publisher, and in consultation with myself and the fact-checker—again something of which Hedges is very much aware.”

As for the “process of annotation” that Hedges described, Ross responded: “To say that it is any editor’s responsibility to locate, remove, and replace plagiarized, paraphrased, or improperly sourced material is ludicrous. That’s not how the editorial process functions, and for a veteran journalist like Hedges to claim not to know this is baffling. Hedges’s story remains the only one I’ve ever been involved with at any level in publishing to be killed for these reasons.”

I reached out both to Chris Hedges and to the Nation Institute’s executive director, Taya Kitman, with a summary of the instances of plagiarism uncovered in the course of this investigation. In an e-mail, Kitman told me that, upon becoming aware of this story “some months ago”—when in December of 2012 I apprised the Nation Institute of the article in progress—both the Nation Institute and Nation Books “conducted a review of Hedges’s writing in his capacity as a Nation Books author and as an investigative fund reporter.” Kitman wrote that this internal investigation did not find any instances of plagiarism. “Chris has been one of our most valuable and tireless public intellectuals,” she said in her e-mailed statement.

Hedges said he subsequently published the Camden piece twice, once as an article in The Nation and as a longer version in his book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, co-written with the journalist and cartoonist Joe Sacco.

Without a copy of the Harper’s draft, it is impossible to know how much the work changed from then until publication. Footnotes suggest that Hedges conducted research after Harper’s killed the piece. However, I found two passages in the book where Hedges uses nearly the exact same language as Katz, the Philadelphia Inquirer reporter.

Katz:

The law, sponsored in part by Norcross’ political allies, earmarked $12.35 million—the second-biggest recovery check—to Cooper’s $220 million expansion. An additional $3 million was provided for its neonatal unit, and the hospital is in line to receive $9 million toward the construction of a new medical school run with Rowan University.

Hedges:

A law, sponsored in part by Norcross’s political allies, earmarked $12.35 million—the second biggest recovery check to the city—to Cooper’s $220 million expansion. An additional $3 million was provided for its neonatal unit. The hospital received $9 million toward the construction of the $140 million Cooper Medical School which will open in the summer of 2012.

Katz:

Less than 5 percent of the $175 million recovery package was spent on the things residents care about most: crime, city schools, job training, and municipal services.

Hedges:

Less than five percent of the $175 million recovery package was spent addressing the most pressing concerns in the city—crime, schools, job training, and municipal services.

Asked about this, Hedges wrote, “I am mystified by your suggestion re two sections of my book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.Both are properly footnoted and sourced.” This is incorrect. In the book, Hedges sources the first quote to a Philadelphia Inquirer article by two other reporters. He sources the second passage to a Katz article, but not the one where the language appears.

Responding to this, the Nation Institute’s Kitman wrote, “It is abundantly clear from Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt that Chris Hedges acknowledges the investigative work The Philadelphia Inquirer did in Camden.” The footnotes, she acknowledged, are wrong, and she said they would be corrected in future printings.

I asked two journalism ethicists to look at the instances of plagiarism described throughout this piece. “These examples suggest not inadvertent plagiarism,” said Kelly McBride, who runs the Ethics Department at the journalism school the Poynter Institute, “but carefully thought out plagiarism meant to skirt the most liberal definition of plagiarism.” Robert Drechsel, the director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that the use of material from Klein, Postman, and Hemingway “could be characterized as something that has come to be called ‘patchwriting.’ English and writing professors Sandra Jamieson and Rebecca Moore Howard have defined it as ‘restating a phrase, clause, or one or more sentences while staying close to the language or syntax of the source.’ Whether it happens intentionally, carelessly, or as an oversight, it’s a very serious matter.”

“Whatever the explanation for Hedges’s reporting,” Drechsel told me, “harm will have occurred. Trust is a journalist’s and journalism’s most precious commodity. Difficult to gain and virtually impossible to regain once lost. If there is even a hint of the possibility that misconduct was covered up, it’s even worse. Journalism will take another hit.”

Correction: In the original version of this article, The New Republic indicated that PublicAffairs changed the text of War is A Force That Gives Us Meaning only after having been alerted by Thomas Palima to the presence of plagiarism. In fact, the wording had been changed months earlier, and an edition with the present language existed at the time of Palaima's email to PublicAffairs. However, there was still no attribution to Heminway in the new version, despite the obvious similarities in ideas and formulation. Additionally, this story has been updated to note that the Hedges pieces in Truthout are republished after initially appearing in Truthdig.