'Miami Babylon' Author Admits to Plagiarism

Author and journalist Gerald Posner resigned in February from the Internet news site The Daily Beast over allegations of plagiarism. Posner has now acknowledged that certain passages in his latest book mirror those of another author's.

Posner stated to the Associated Press that he indeed flubbed up when he improperly used direct text from Frank Owen's Clubland in his own book Miami Babylon, published by Simon & Schuster.

"If you use something from another book, a statement from another book, it needs to be in quotations, or if you take something and put it in your own syntax and grammar, you still need to cite it," Posner said Wednesday. The writer added that he would revise the material in question and would check his book for other similar problems.

"I do think that the Frank Owen situation may be unique for me," Posner said. "Without going through every line I can't be 100 percent sure, but I think that is the only case."

David Rosenthal, executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster, only stated: "We are reviewing the situation and discussing the issues with the author."

Posner resigned last month from his position as chief investigative reporter of The Daily Beast after a writer for Slate.com noted several instances of Posner lifting from the Miami Herald without proper citation.

"The core of my problem was in shifting from that of a book writer," responded Posner, "to what I describe as the `warp speed of the Net.'"

Posner has defended that Babylon is the product of endless hours of original reporting, from hundreds of interviews and thousands of pages of documents from court cases and political meetings. Babylon tells the story of the notorious characters who made their dealings in 20th century Miami Beach, Fla. From Al Capone to cocaine dealers, the book tells how the criminals were connected with politicians, club owners, and real estate dealers.