"An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted." - Arthur Miller

Monday, July 03, 2006

Ann Coulter - plagiarist?

Various blogs on the web has spoken about it for many months but the The New York Post finally reported Sunday that Ann Coulter, republican talking points pundit, might has a fondness for plagiarism in both her books and her columns.

John Barrie used his own program, iThenticate, to search against her recent book "Godless" and several of her columns.

Her Aug. 3, 2005, column, 'Read My Lips: No New Liberals,' about U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, includes six passages, ranging from 10 to 48 words each, that appeared 15 years earlier in the same order in an L.A. Times article, headlined 'Liberals Leery as New Clues Surface on Souter's Views.' But nowhere in that column does she mention the L.A. Times or the story's writer, David G. Savage.

"Her June 29, 2005, column, 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Religion,' incorporates 10 facts on National Endowment for the Arts-funded work that originally appeared in the same order in a 1991 Heritage Foundation report, 'The National Endowment for the Arts: Misusing Taxpayers' Money.' But again, the Heritage Foundation isn't credited."

- source: editorandpublisher.com

Its highly likely that Ann Coulter plagarizes. This opinion is based on nothing further then the fact her entire career is based on blowing smoke and making stuff up on the fly. Actually research and learning the issues are not a strength she bothers to display.

Now normally this is a grave sin in the publishing world that often results in the lost of jobs both for the one that commits the act and the editor that didn't catch it. I wonder if anything will come of this case considering that Ann is the darling of the Republican world currently? I think not likely.

(source)

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