Alexei Barrionuevo helps himself to Bloomberg News copy without attribution.

When a journalist gets caught plagiarizing the first time, he can usually duck the charge by claiming that the theft was really an accident. I mistakenly mixed my own notes and a Nexis dump. Or, It was a cut-and-paste error. But when a journalist gets caught plagiarizing a second time, it's much harder for him to plead to a mere blunder.

Last month, the New York Times conceded plagiarism when I informed it that a Feb. 23 Times dispatch had lifted—almost verbatim—two lines from an 18-month-old Miami Herald story about the illicit drug paco. The Times reporter, Alexei Barrionuevo, told his bosses that he didn't remember pinching the lines from the Herald but acknowledged that he must have retrieved them while Googling for information.

A second case of plagiarism by Barrionuevo has come to my attention. On July 15, 2005, Bloomberg News moved a story about the United States lifting "mad cow" import restrictions on Canadian cattle. On July 16, 2005, the Times ran a very similar story, also pegged to a conference call with Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns.

The Times echoes the earlier Bloomberg piece in at least four passages. (The Times passages are reproduced slightly out of sequence for the purposes of comparison.)

Bloomberg News:

The first shipments from Canada may arrive at U.S. slaughterhouses in days, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said today in a conference call.

New York Times:

The first shipments from Canada could arrive at American slaughterhouses as early as next week, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a conference call with reporters.

Bloomberg News:

USDA and Canadian officials are coordinating how to certify animals for shipment, he said.