News Intelligence Analysis
Paper Confirms plus:
VIDEO: Expert Calls Passages
in Coulter's 'Godless' Book 'Textbook Plagiarism'
07/05/2006 @ 10:18 pm
Filed by
RAW STORY
Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show featured an interview with the CEO of a plagiarism recognition system which was used to look through conservative pundit Ann Coulter's latest book Godless and a year's worth of her columns, RAW STORY has found.
John Barrie, the creator of iThenticate, called attention to three examples of what he calls "textbook plagiarism" in Coulter's book, as reported on Sunday by the NY Post.
Barrie told Olbermann that he stopped looking after he found more than enough examples of "lifted" passages, and that many of her footnotes appeared to be in error, as well.
The Rude Pundit first blogged about the apparent plagiarism in a June 2005 column by Coulter a year ago, and Raw Story followed up on the blogger's work, revealing that the column was little more that a cut-and-paste repetition of points authored by conservative religious groups in the early 1990s. Barrie briefly mentions the 2005 column in the MSNBC interview as another example found by iThenticate.
One of the three "textbook plagiarism" examples in Godless cited by Barrie was also noted first by The Rude Pundit last month days after the book's release. RAW STORY then reported that Coulter "cribbed" a list of adult stem cell treatments from a Right To Life website for the seventh chapter of her book nearly word-for-word.
According to TPM Muckraker, Universal Press Syndicate, the company that syndicates Coulter's columns, will be reviewing Barrie's examples of "textbook plagiarism." Earlier in the day, Kathie Kerr, the media relations chief for the company, first told TPM's Justin Rood that Coulter "is the one that needs to address this."
Editor & Publisher notes that Coulter's latest column does "address" the NY Post. Coulter attacks the tabloid by calling it the city's "second-crappiest paper," but never refers to the plagiarism allegations that the paper broke first in print.
Wonkette is skeptical about any Universal Press Syndicate "probe."
"But now, tired of the phone calls, the hand-wringing, the tears and pouting, Ms. Kerr has done a totally convincing about-face, and vaguely promised a maybe-tomorrow-maybe-someday investigation which no doubt will totally condemn the woman who makes them wheelbarrows full of money which, placed end-to-end, could totally reach Uranus," writes Wonkette. "Oh, the wheels of fake justice are swift. I’m giddy, aren’t you?"
Paper Confirms Coulter Plagiarism
Reported Online First
07/02/2006 @ 7:05 pm
Filed by RAW
STORY
"Conservative scribe Ann Coulter cribbed liberally in her latest book, Godless, according to a plagiarism expert," reports The New York Post today.
"John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system, claimed he found at least three instances of what he calls "textbook plagiarism" in the leggy blond pundit's "Godless: the Church of Liberalism" after he ran the book's text through the company's digital iThenticate program," writes Philip Recchia.
Some of the examples of Coulter's plagiarism have already been reported online, but this is the first time the allegations have travelled to the print media.
Last summer, blogger The Rude Pundit first blogged about a few examples of possible Coulter plagiarism he found in her Jun. 29, 2005 column, "Thou Shall Not Commit Religion," and RAW STORY followed up after finding more.
Nearly a month ago, The Rude Pundit found at least one sentence that appeared to have been lifted elsewhere in Coulter's new book. Then RAW STORY, again, followed up with more.
However, there is no mention in the Post article about the previous discoveries, and The Rude Pundit noted this at his blog today.
"But, really, and, c'mon, when the time comes to burn Coulter at the stake of plagiarism, the Rude Pundit and Ron Brynaert of Raw Story (Brynaert especially so since he did far, far more legworkcoulter-blindsided-by-science-from.html than the Rude Pundit on this story) deserve to hold the torch along with Barrie, let alone get some mention in the New York Post," writes The Rude Pundit. "(And especially since the plagiarism work of the Rude Pundit and Brynaert was mentioned at MSNBC, Slate, Huffington Post, and other mucho larger media outlets - in other words, just a Google away.)"
Excerpts from the NY Post article:
Barrie, CEO of iParadigms, told The Post that one 25-word passage
from the "Godless" chapter titled "The Holiest
Sacrament: Abortion" appears to have been lifted nearly
word for word from Planned Parenthood literature published at
least 18 months before Coulter's 281-page book was released.
A separate, 24-word string from the chapter "The Creation Myth" appeared about a year earlier in the San Francisco Chronicle with just one word change - "stacked" was changed to "piled."
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.
"Just as Coulter plays free and loose with her citations in 'Godless,' she obviously does the same in her columns," Barrie said.
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NEW: Coulter Plagiarism In New Book
By Philip Recchia
New York Post
July 2, 2006 -- Conservative scribe Ann Coulter
cribbed liberally in her latest book, "Godless,"
according to a plagiarism
expert.
Ann Coulter's New Book:
Godless: The Church of Liberalism
"If a martian landed in
America and set out
to determine the nation's official state religion,
he would have to conclude it is liberalism,
while Christianity and Judaism are
prohibited by law."
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