(Credit: American Lung Association)

The Augusta Free Press published a guest blogger’s article, headlined “Eight tips to quit smoking this year for good.”

Problem is, the article lifted from the American Lung Association “without permission from the American Lung Association and without attribution.”

Now, the Free Press has unpublished the article.

iMediaEthics wrote to the Free Press to ask how the newspaper learned of the issues, whether the article was wholly plagiarized and if the Free Press will continue to publish the blogger in question; editor Chris Graham declined to comment beyond the apology.

The correction and apology, published the day after the original article, reads:

“Augusta Free Press has removed an article published on Monday (June 3, 2019) under the title, “Eight tips to quit smoking this year for good.”

“The article, submitted by a guest blogger, took content from a blog from the American Lung Association without permission from the American Lung Association, and without attribution.

“Once the issue with the content was brought to our attention, we removed the article immediately.

We regret the error, and apologize to the American Lung Association and to our readers for the oversight.”