Maureen Dowd is the latest journalistic big gun to be caught using someone else's prose and pretending it's hers. Dowd used about 40 words from an online source in a column that appeared yesterday in the New York Times. This article from Slate helpfully analyzes the infraction, and how Dowd has responded. This is clearly a teachable moment, as journalism students everywhere have been admonished for years to never do what Dowd has done--to her public and personal embarrassment. Having this bad behavior outed is perhaps the only thing that keeps it from becoming rampant, considering the ease with which anyone can cut-and-paste someone else's creative thought.
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2 days ago
Considering that Maureen Dowd has been in journalism since 1974, it behooves me that she could blunder so badly. Since she does use the words of others and has always credited their work, I can hardly believe that it was an oversight, nor can I believe that she would do it willfully. It simply is not worth it. With today’s technology, it is too easy to get caught, yet it happens. Her only redeeming quality is the fact that she accepted responsibility for her act, and that she did not shift the blame. A lot can be said about that.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of Clinton’s statement, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
Had he told the truth, I would not have been ashamed of him. I saw him as a coward for lying, which was more shameful than the actual act.
It takes a lot to stand up and admit that you have done wrong. Had Dowd hid behind a lie, I would have no respect for her.