Maybe Wente Should Just Go

Tell me that what Media Culpa illustrates here isn't an example of what John Mashey refers to in the comments as "mosaic plagiarism".  MC concludes as follows:

Like journalists, kids who plagiarize are sometimes excused if it’s deemed to be “an isolated incident”.  But what if it’s a pattern?  And what if the pattern is tolerated (by editors or teachers)? Some of Ms. Wente’s earlier lapses have been addressed reluctantly - through corrections or Editor’s Notes (direct response from the Globe has been frosty).  But errors also raise larger issues – like "John", who Wente presented as the ‘face’ of the Occupy protests. John’s bio and quotes also appeared in her work without attribution (they had previously shown up on a couple of American websites in a different context). Sadly, it turned out John had nothing to do with the protests: Ms. Wente effectively invented an Occupy protester.  Is that any less egregious than Jonah Lehrer’s invented Bob Dylan quote? 

So there you have it.

Every On-Line Garbologist Should Own One

Got a look at how an "anti-plagiarism" tool like this worked during the last election. Handy thing to have on hand if your PM might be, oh I don't know, copping material from other conservative writers. A steal at $100.

Pinker And Chomsky Weigh In On Plagiarism Debate!

Well not really, but this observation, originally due to Chomsky, is quite apropos to the "does this amount to plagiarism" debate going on in Jerad's comments section.

...almost every sentence anybody voices is an original combination of words, never previously uttered, therefore a language cannot consist only of word combinations learned through repetition and conditioning; the brain must contain innate means of creating endless amounts of grammatical sentences from a limited vocabulary. This is precisely what Chomsky (1965) argues with his proposition of a Universal Grammar (UG)."

The idea that a close match like the one under consideration might be a coincidence is, from a linguistic sciences stand-point, extremely implausible.

Guilty As Charged

Re today's charges of plagiarism against Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party:

"We’ve been led to believe in the past that Stephen Harper writes his own speeches, can we assume that this was Mr. Harper’s own work?"

“No..."

Once Stephen Harper's speech-writing abilities were only one aspect of his overwhelming genius. Now he palms off the job to his hacks.

What the Tory line seems to be evolving into is that a lowly staffer coughed up the speech for Harper, and therefore whatever plagiarism occurred was really their fault. Furthermore, because of the high-turnover rate among political speechwriters, their identity remains conveniently unknowable.

Did The Toronto Sun Rip Off Toronto Blogger?

The head honcho at a popular Toronto blog entitled The Torontoist is accusing the Toronto Sun of plagiarism. Here's the original bit from The Torontoist:

Posterchild––street artist extraordinaire and our new curator for Vandalist––has taken it on himself to fill the empty hooks of the TTC's subways, streetcars, and buses with new and improved information flyers. For the past week, he's posted details of one flyer a day to his blog: Monday was a subway and streetcar colouring book; Tuesday was tips on how to flirt on the subway (pictured above); Wednesday was a guided graffiti tour along the 510 Spadina streetcar route; Thursday was a cryptogram, maze, connect-the-dots game, and riddles; and today's, Friday, was a claim that the whole system is now free.

From the T.O Sun:

For each week day, Posterchild made up flyers for commuters and hung them on hooks on subway cars and the 510 Spadina streetcar.

Each day had a different theme:

Monday was a subway and streetcar colouring book; Tuesday was tips on how to flirt on the subway; Wednesday was a guided graffiti tour along the 510 Spadina streetcar route; Thursday was a cryptogram, maze, connect-the-dots game, and riddles; and Friday's was a claim that the whole system is now free.

A very intense discussion ensues in the Torontoist comments as to what constitutes plagiary, who at The Sun is ultimately responsible, and etc.

Interesting in that what it seems was done in this case (a quick cut & paste) is done on the blogs regularly, including here. Although personally I always try to link to the original source if I intend to crib lines (so readers can see what I took from where).