Interesting that it took a conservative ‘watchdog’ group to expose him.
I would make this observation. Once you sign up to write a piece or column....you need to allocate a fair amount of time...not just to write the draft, but to ensure grammar is decent, and references are noted. It would have taken a minute to write in a reference to the already written piece and use a bit data from that other piece. He was in a rush, and didn’t give himself time.
Now, I’m also guessing that he’s done this dozens of times and never been caught. I suspect that CNN knows this and this one month ‘vacation’ is part of this effort to get his attention on the matter.
The interesting thing here is that Microsoft Word actually has made noting references the easiest thing in the world, and it takes barely sixty seconds to note where you got the data or reference. Once you do this....you are free and clear to write word for word and get away with it.