Nah. It's not so much that they are unaware of the effect of "many eyes" being able to check them as it is a culture of arrogance. After all, newsreaders and papers regularly take press releases of organs they agree with and simply run them as stories/read them nearly word-for-stinking-word, talking point by talking point, and have done for years.
Why should we be surprised when an occasional "reporter" is caught cribbing? Oh. Right. He's actually caught AND exposed AND suffers some weenie consequences (like a job loss instead of a job loss, horse whipping and internment in a work camp sucking flatus from carseats and political speeches).
Even worse, the historians Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin (and perhaps others?) who have been accused of and/or confessed of plagairism -- respected names who, for some reason, got too big, too busy, LAZY. For shame.
BTW, TFM, you sure aren't lazy. In fact, from looking at my OTB posts, you're one of the hardest working bloggers out there! Keep up the good work -- your own, of course. 
Oh, found this, a discussion forum transcript from The News Hour re plagarism, with Doris Kerns Goodwin chiming in too. An interesting skim, at any rate.
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