The Editor Did It!

This is silly. The plagiarism examples keep rolling into my inbox:

Late yesterday, the liberal Web sites Daily Kos and Atrios posted examples of what appeared to be instances of plagiarism from Domenech's writing at the William & Mary student paper. Three sentences of a 1999 Domenech review of a Martin Scorsese film were identical to a review in Salon magazine, and several sentences in Domenech's piece on a James Bond movie closely resembled one in the Internet Movie Database. Domenech said he needed to research the examples but that he never used material without attribution and had complained about a college editor improperly adding language to some of his articles.

...and, let me add, as someone who has graded plenty of papers I know the difference between "inadvertent plagiarism" where a good faith but failed effort is made to restate something found elsewhere and wholesale lifting of paragraphs.



...and, as james notes, it would be truly bizarre for an editor to lift an entire column from PJ O'Rourke and put his name on it. (Yes, I know this defense doesn't even pass the giggle test but for some reason it's convincing the the country's most prominent media critic Howard Kurtz).

Open Thread

Yeah, yeah, another stupid open thread.

Open Thread

Yeah, yeah, another stupid open thread.

Digby Speak

Everyone listen.

There are days I want to yell at Digby: Bad blogger! Lazy blogger not post enough! Ditto the Poor Man and the Mighty Reason Man who I think made five posts, all brilliant, over his entire blogging career before disappearing.

But, speed ain't everything, and usually about the time I've come up with a coherent larger critique Digby comes through. I've long joked that if Digby posted more often I'd have to quit blogging. If we managed to clone Digby into 3 that would be the case.

The Horse once flattered me by saying something along the lines of "Atrios+Media Matters=The Horse." I got the point, but a more accurate version would be "Digby+Media Matters=The Horse."

Portrait of a Wanker

Conason:

The Post may be deaf to complaints about overheated rhetoric and insults to a civil rights hero, but the plagiarism and quote-fabrication charges can't be ignored. It's hard to imagine Domenech will survive this, but whatever happens next, the Post's failure to adequately vet its new hire in its fretful search for "balance" could damage its credibility substantially. For now it looks like the paper hired the love child of Janet Cooke and Donald Segretti.

Ticky Tacky

The wankosphere's most pompous twit, Tacitus, is back for some funny stuff:

Assume, for a moment, that the plagiarism charge is true. For the sake of argument, assume that.
Now, having accepted this, what are we left with?


It is the sole critique of Domenech by the left with any objective merit.

It does not have much merit, as the profferred examples are:

-- Old, dating wholly from Domenech's teen years.
-- Confined wholly to movie reviews.

True, ripping off movie reviews was a favorite. But we also have news articles, portions of humor books, and even music reviews.

And tomorrow's another day...

Fresh Thread

Try not to shoot anybody, including yourself, in the face while reading this.

Meanwhile, all good patriots will shun Thersites for his nasty plagiarism.

Even More

Plagiarized stuff for the National Review.

The basic sense I'm getting is the guy couldn't write for shit, which is evident if you read his non-plagiarized opinion columns for his student newspaper. So, to puff up his cred he stole stuff. Presumably being lazy had something to do with it.

...and stealing from the WaPo itself. Bit behind apparently, was out seeing Buried Beds and Anne Heaton.

...and more. Frankly at this point the challenge is finding articles written by him that weren't plagiarized.


...some high comedy here.

...more here and here thanks to AB.


...Thersites adds his own unique view.

Open Thread

Yeah, yeah, another stupid open thread.

Open Thread

Yeah, yeah, another stupid open thread.

Even More

Athenae finds more.

Box Turtle:

At its best, "The Bachelor" skews the absurdity of any human relationships ‹ even the successful ones. As terrified as Jimmie is of losing his freedom, Anne is equally worried about becoming like her parents ‹ who, it turns out, are an older couple nauseatingly and demonstratively still in love with each other.

Salon:

At its best, it skews the absurdity of any human relationships -- even the successful ones. As terrified as Jimmie is of losing his freedom, Anne is equally worried about becoming like her parents -- who, it turns out, are an older couple nauseatingly, demonstratively, still in love with each other.

I suppose we should acknowledge the possibility that all of these reviewers were ripping off Ben [/snark].

Even More

Epidemic. Box Turtle.

The most important co-stars in the Bond movies are the spy's toys. These films usually have the audience applauding for the stunts and this episode of the superspy saga is no different. There's plenty of action and vehicles to enjoy, like the helicopter with a super-sized chainsaw attached, which cuts through cars and buildings, and a sleek, one-man boat with jet afterburners that looks like something custom-made for Batman.

Steve Rhodes:

The most important costars in the Bond movies are the spy's toys. These films usually have the audience applauding for the stunts, and this episode of the superspy saga is no different.

The best of the bunch in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH is a sleek, one-man, black boat complete with jet afterburners, which looks like something custom-made for Batman. The vehicle even has the ability to dive underwater briefly while the driver holds his breath. It can turn into a car as well, all the better to engage in a typical Bond demolition derby.

More Plagiarism

Oh Lordy. Box Turtle Ben:

One night, Frank meets Mary Burke (Patricia Arquette), whose father has suffered a heart attack. Mary, a former junkie, hasn't spoken to her father in three years, but she becomes deeply troubled when she realizes he's so close to death. Frank is even more concerned for her than he is for her father. He begins to fall deeply in love with her, checks up on her at her apartment, invites her to have a piece of pizza at the hospital with him. He's as gentle as a lamb with her, but he's an exhausted one, all bruised and battered.

Zacharek in Salon:

In the line of duty one night, Frank meets Mary Burke (Patricia Arquette), whose father has suffered a heart attack. Mary is a former junkie who seems to have just barely pulled her life together. She hasn't spoken to her father in three years, but she becomes troubled when she realizes he's so close to death. Frank is just as concerned for her as he is for her father. He begins to fall deeply in love with her, checking up on her at her apartment, inviting her to have a piece of pizza at the hospital with him. He's as gentle with her a spring lamb, but he's an exhausted one, all bruised and buffeted.

Box Turtle:

Rhames gives the most delightful and energized performance in the movie. His scenes, particularly his sassy flirtation with a honey-voiced dispatcher (Queen Latifah) let some much-needed light leak into the picture. Arquette is charming but neurotic as the dazed, soft-spoken Mary. She seems to walk around in a haze of confusion half the time, but when she smiles, the air around her seems to clear miraculously. Her scenes with Cage (her husband in real life) have an emotional quality that sets them apart from the rest of the film, but they are sometimes overlong.

Zacharek:

Rhames gives the single most delightful and energized performance in the movie. His scenes, particularly his sassy flirtation with a honey-voiced dispatcher (no wonder: it's Queen Latifah) let some much-needed light leak into the picture. Arquette, as usual, is charming, here as the dazed, soft-spoken Mary. She seems to walk around in a haze of confusion half the time, but when she smiles, the air around her seems to clear miraculously. Her scenes with Cage (her husband in real life) have a strange, arrhythmic underwater quality to them that's vaguely maddening but fascinating at the same time.

etc...

(discovered by silence at kos)

Oh No Not Again

Please follow this man's advice and stop having these elite media/politician lovefests. Here's a screen cap of Joe Lieberman laughing it up when Bush was joking about not being able to find weapons of mass destruction.

Plagiarism?

I saw the humor column in question before and while it seemed a bit out of character for the 17 year old Box Turtle it didn't really seem relevant.


...more here.

Best. Movie. Ever.

And it's going to get even better.

If you can't understand why a movie with Samuel L. Jackson killing snakes on plane will in fact be the greatest movie ever made no matter how bad it is then there's no hope for you.

Obsessed

Jeebus.

Nedrenaline!

Great, you all blew past my goal of 225 donations and got it up to 238.

Sam Seder's going to be talking about Joe soon.

Looking Good

I have no idea if Mara Liasson is correct that people get all upset when those reporters actually ask the preznit hard questions, but what I do know is that such considerations should not even enter the picture. It's not a popularity contest between the preznit and the press.

Great Moments in Earmarking

Jeebus, do these people ever stop being corrupt?

Tax deductible "charitable" contribution which goes directly into your son's pocket.