It’s funny — there are three newspapers generally considered to be the tops in the Ivy League: the Harvard Crimson, the Yale Daily News, and the Daily Pennsylvanian (not in that order). And with the 2006-’07 school year coming to a close, the three papers tarred by plagiarism flaps so far are the Crimson, the YDN, and now, the DP.

The DP fired columnist Jamie France ’10 this weekend after her column on caffeine Friday bore uncanny similarities to a Yahoo! Food piece from March. The former ticks off facts on Diet Coke, Water Joe, Red Bull, Tab Energy, Enviga, Rocket Chocolates, Starbucks and Spike Shooter; the latter ticks off facts on Diet Coke, Water Joe, Red Bull, Tab Energy, Enviga, Rocket Chocolates, Starbucks and Spike Shooter. Five health benefits are duplicated, too. And all those things are given in the exact same order, the odds of which occurring naturally are one in (math nerds, speak up) 6,227,020,800.

We asked the DP about this on Saturday morning, and as of 5:30 p.m. the paper had France’s back. “I see that there are similarities,” her editor, Zoe Tillman, wrote, “but I stand by Jamie’s work. … I know that she would never intentionally plagiarize anything.” EIC Shawn Safvi said: “I recognize the similarities and I know that Jamie did use that website as one of the main resources for writing her column. However, after speaking with Jamie I know that she did not intentionally plagiarize anything on that website.” (Note the similar phrasing in their emails. Oh, the irony.)

But less than 24 hours later, France was canned. “While we still believe that she did complete other research to get her information, the similarities in writing style and structure are too noticeable to ignore,” Tillman emailed us. “The DP does not tolerate plagiarism in any form, and we’re currently discussing implementing more in-depth workshops on these issues for staff in the future.”

Everything about this makes us sad. First, the DP is a great paper, and if plagiarism happens there, it must happen everywhere. Second, this is extremely unusual, but France may actually be a one-time offender; we’ll be counting on you to find other examples, but in the meantime, this could just be a kid who screwed up at finals time. (France hasn’t responded to an email.) Finally, and most disturbing of all, is the idea that a reader busted France by being familiar with a month-old charticle on Diet Coke on Yahoo! Food.