Friday, February 29, 2008
You Mean It's Wrong?
Dan Froomkin, who writes the "White House Watch" at the Washington Post, leads off with a mind blowing incident--Timothy Goeglein, who worked as an aide to President Bush (in the area of outreach to religious conservatives) has been caught in a number of incidents of plagiarism while (mostly) penning columns for his hometown paper, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. It seems that Mr. Goeglein has not just been paraphrasing or using some terms that are identical (like Barack Obama's recent speech), but instead has been ripping off multiple paragraphs from the original source to pen as his own. At the time of Froomkin's writing, Goeglein had simply issued an apology to the newspaper and to the White House.
At the "News-Sentinel," they report that Mr. Goeglein has now resigned. And for good reason. An internal audit by the newspaper found that of the 38 columns he wrote since 2000, 20 of them were plagiarized. This was a finding after the fact. Mr. Goeglein would likely have continued to copy the work of others had a blogger--Nancy Nail, who used to work for the News-Sentinel--not called everyone's attention to it. After she posted it this morning and it was picked up by Froomkin, more folks came to her cite and added additional plagiarism by Goeglein, making his a serial plagiarizer.
In acceptance of his resignation, Mr. Goeglein didn't receive a special thanks from Bush. Instead, this statement by Press Secretary Dana Perino:
As for Mr. Goeglein, you wonder why he didn't simply ask one of the many White House staff writers to come up with a column for him? Granted, it is just as dishonest but then again ghostwriting is a million dollar business. There is a larger issue at stake here, and one that isn't getting attention in these stories. How many local newspapers run, without editing, columns from important politicians? This means that in exchange for the important person writing the column, the newspaper won't do anything with it--which I assume means fact checking as well as editing. Thus news editors check their responsibility to the honor and credibility of their newspaper and public in the hope that the public standing of the important person will be enough to keep them from pulling nonsense such as this--20/38 columns that contain substantial passages from someone else's hard work. When did we get to this sorry state of affairs?
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At the "News-Sentinel," they report that Mr. Goeglein has now resigned. And for good reason. An internal audit by the newspaper found that of the 38 columns he wrote since 2000, 20 of them were plagiarized. This was a finding after the fact. Mr. Goeglein would likely have continued to copy the work of others had a blogger--Nancy Nail, who used to work for the News-Sentinel--not called everyone's attention to it. After she posted it this morning and it was picked up by Froomkin, more folks came to her cite and added additional plagiarism by Goeglein, making his a serial plagiarizer.
In acceptance of his resignation, Mr. Goeglein didn't receive a special thanks from Bush. Instead, this statement by Press Secretary Dana Perino:
Tim Goeglein has loyally served President Bush for over seven years and worked tirelessly on his behalf to promote the President's policies. Among his contributions, Tim helped establish the President's Faith-Based and Community Initiative, and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. He also played an important role in the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Alito. Today, Tim accepted responsibility for the columns published under his name in his local newspaper, and has apologized for not upholding the standards expected by the President. The President was disappointed to learn of the matter, and he was saddened for Tim and his family. He has long appreciated Tim's service, and he knows him to be a good person who is committed to his country. President Bush accepted Tim's resignation today.
"...not upholding the standards expected by the President." That is a doozy. This means, apparently, that he got caught. Remember this is the same White House that:
- Paid journalists to shill for it;
- Allowed the owner of a gay escort service to sit in the White House Press Room and ask the president and press secretary questions over the questions from legitimate journalists;
- Encouraged supporters to copy and paste White House talking points in "Letters to the Editor" all over the United States.
As for Mr. Goeglein, you wonder why he didn't simply ask one of the many White House staff writers to come up with a column for him? Granted, it is just as dishonest but then again ghostwriting is a million dollar business. There is a larger issue at stake here, and one that isn't getting attention in these stories. How many local newspapers run, without editing, columns from important politicians? This means that in exchange for the important person writing the column, the newspaper won't do anything with it--which I assume means fact checking as well as editing. Thus news editors check their responsibility to the honor and credibility of their newspaper and public in the hope that the public standing of the important person will be enough to keep them from pulling nonsense such as this--20/38 columns that contain substantial passages from someone else's hard work. When did we get to this sorry state of affairs?
