They need to cop to it, for sure. But what they did wasn't plagiarism. (Nor was the Maclean's cover.) Apples and oranges ....

And the apology from the folks at NOW for ripping off both Time and New York is....where exactly?

I notice you don't link to Wente's apology. Selective Googling? Anywway, here it is:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/columnist-margaret-wente-defends-herself/article4565731/

That's strange. When I google Wente Apology I get both an apology from John Stackhouse and one from Wente. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/editor-in-chief-john-stackhouses-memo-to-globe-and-mail-staff-on-margaret-wente-allegations/article4565665/
Just like when Brian Segal apologised for the Bonhome Cover...which turned out to be spot on of course. NOW doesn't do the apology thing.

Wente hardly apologized. She even attacked her accuser.

So, it's bad to steal words, passages, and ideas, but ok to steal images and ideas? So long as you admit it. The Toronto Star reported that NOW tweeted that "an X is an X", so they appear to be denying stealing anyone's ideas or images. I'm not "defending" plaigiarism, I'm trying to point it out. I just don't understand why Wente was thrown under the bus and NOW just gets a pass. What "allusion" was the designer making? That Ford is as evil as Hitler? You can hate Wente or you can hate Ford, but let's be conistent. Say what you must about Wente, but she apologised, NOW just scoffs. Check out this week's cover from NOW...they did it again. Pity poor NOW, they've run out of original ideas and creativity.

While it's regrettable that Now Magazine (which I've never read) didn't go further afield for design inspiration, it does actually make sense to me that they weren't trying to hide the fact that these cover designs echo the originator's.

Margaret Wente, on the other hand, has been shown to have actually stolen passages and ideas without proper attribution, on multiple occasions. Despite the evidence, and despite the editors and journalists at her own newspaper and others admitting those behaviours were examples of obvious plagiarism, she has never admitted so.

I don't think we need to defend Wente's actions, as you do by putting the word 'plagiarism' in quotations marks, in order to be critical of these cover designs. It would also be interesting to ask the designers what they were thinking and if they knew people would get the allusion.