Just in case readers here in Massachusetts were feeling that the Gannongate scandal was but a bizarre, far away, inside-the-beltway story, check this out:

Blogger Ron Brynaert, who has been researching the alleged reporting of Jeff Gannon and his colleagues at (the now defunct) Talon News, has revealed that Gannon plagiarized an exclusive June 13, 2003 story by Melissa Beecher which appeared in the MetroWest Daily News and The Daily News Tribune, that serve suburban Boston and are owned by the The Boston Herald. Brynaert writes: “In response to a ‘You Got plagiarized By Jeff Gannon’ e-mail that I sent, Ms. Beecher informed me that she ‘was the only reporter at this event’ and reported on a first-hand experience.”

Brynaert’s report was picked up by The Raw Story, which further interviewed Beecher and her editor, Richard Lodge. “What bothers me,” Lodge told Raw Story, “was that it was so clear that it was our story… He was not there, and yet he represented to his readers that he was. She was the only reporter in that room. The fact that he didn’t attribute it, that he represented to readers that he was that was a lie. He is a liar.

Raw Story notes that Beecher and Lodge were shocked to learn that Gannon (whose real name is James Guckert) would be speaking at a National Press Club panel discussion on journalism and blogging, in Washington, DC next week.

“He’s not a journalist,” Lodge told Raw Story. “And he misrepresented to anyone reading that website that this was his work, and it was not his work, plain and simple.”

“When somebody sets himself up to be a credible journalist, however the heck he did that, and I think it happened because nobody questioned him, then he is tainting all of us legitimate journalists,” Lodge added. “Because whatever questions he’s asking, and whatever stories he’s allegedly writing, are suspect. And I think that makes readers suspect all of us.”