SAY IT AIN’T SO, KATIE

MEDIA Imagine losing a job you’ve held for 22 years-over ants.

That’s what happened re-cently to veteran Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist KATIE SHERROD. who was fired following charges that she plagiarized from a Washington Post story about the death of a queen ant in the National Zoo.

Sherrod says that she never read the story, but heard several accounts of the incident on the radio and look notes. Whatever the process, the fateful column she wrote contains several passages almost identical to the Post story.

Despite the evidence. Sher-rod loyalists who believe her penalty was too harsh have turned her into something of a renegade folk hero in the Cowplex. Pro-Sherrod bumper stickers are now seen around town, the emblems of the Katie Sherrod Support Group. According to spokesman Gary LIPE, the group largely consists of “women professionals, social service workers, ministers, and people involved with the types of activities that Katie liked to write about.”

Representatives of the group called on Star-Telegram publisher RICH CONNOR and came away somewhat heartened. “He added that his attitude is “never say never.’” Lipe says. However, when the group attempted to run a pro-Sherrod ad in the Startlegram-at a cost of $1.788-they were rejected.

“Connor probably figured the whole thing would blow over, but the heat’s not going away.” said Sherrod. who believes that bad blood be-tween her and the publisher led to her ouster. She often criticized the paper in her column, most recently for its decision to print the name of the alleged rape victim in the WILLIAM KENNEDY SMITH affair.

Connor denies that any grudge factor figured into the decision. But as one newsroom staffer put it after insisting on anonymity. “Everybody at the paper thinks that Connor was out to get her. Katie was foolish in providing him the chance to do it.”