The John Merrill Debate

After reading the article "The John Merrill Debate: As journalists and educators, this much we know for certain," I believe that Merrill's plagiarism was unintentional, and not done as an attempt to steal someone's work. However, what he did was wrong, and a proper journalist would have cited the source of the quotes. I think that the publication was looking for a reason to end his column, and that is why they handled the situation the way they did.