Update: Keller's editor, Michael Flamini, has provided the following defense to the Herald--“‘The Bluest State’ is a lively and controversial work” and “more akin to an op-ed piece than to a work of historical analysis or an academic treatise.... It is unreasonable to expect extensive footnotes for each and every quote, or a lengthy bibliography."

Wow. How hard is it to print footnotes? And how stupid does Flamini think Keller's audience is? This statement makes it sound like Keller did indeed have footnotes and may have used them, but the publisher was going for a "trade" vibe. Next time, print the footnotes.

Original post: The Herald took aim yesterday at political commenter Jon Keller for lifting passages from other books to fill out his The Bluest State. Here's what the Herald says:

Jon Keller’s highly touted new book, “The Bluest State,” is riddled with almost three dozen instances of direct quotes and other material lifted from numerous newspaper articles without any attribution.

We feel bad for the poor person who had to comb through every word of that book! Apparently Keller went on a quote-lifting spree and never mentioned where he got the info. Keller told the Herald that his editor said footnotes weren't necessary. Footnotes not necessary? For a political book?

And here's the touchy part--Keller also writes for the Herald. This year's holiday party is going to be awkward.

David at Blue Mass Group sat down and read all of Keller's not-so magnum opus. He announced today that he also felt something was fishy with Keller's writing. In fact, David devoted an entire section to his Bluest State review to "Weird Sourcing."

Dan Kennedy of Media Nation, who says from the start that he's a friend of Keller, defends Keller by saying that Keller clearly wasn't trying to pass off the sections of the book in question as his own work.

The message of all this? If you are ever lucky enough to publish your book and don't want to get in trouble, tell your publisher not to be a cheapass and to use footnotes!

All charges of plagiarism alleged until proven in the court of public opinion. Image of Jon Keller from WBZ.