Plagiarism in Publishing

With Gerald Posner at The Daily Beast  and Zachery Kouwe at The New York Times both out of jobs because of their plagiarism, we can't help but wonder -- why?  Why are high-powered, big-name journalists committing the cardinal sin of plagiarism? Is the pressure to produce fresh content outweighing the commitment to honesty -- or do you think, like 17 year old german novelist Helene Hegemann argues, that it's not stealing if you put it in your "own unique context?"