In
"California Politics Today #169: Putting words in his mouth: how California State Senator Tom McClintock set the stage for movie star Mel Gibson to rhetorically attack California Proposition 71, the Stem Cell Initiative", we looked at how politics, like movies, often involves a collaboration between writer and actor, with the former formulating what is to be said and the latter saying it, as convincingly as possible.
We all know, of course, that when someone takes another's words and uses them as if they were his or her own, what we have is plagiarism. Ask some of our better-known historians just how grievous an infraction deliberate or inadvertent plagiarism can be.
With that in mind, look at this evidence:
Having conclusively demonstrated that what Mel Gibson was supposed to have "said" in his interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez of
National Review Online was mostly a word-for-word copy of what Tom McClintock wrote in his article (assuming, of course that it
was written by the actual Tom McClintock, and not by his staff, writing as "Tom McClintock," since he did, after all, use some of the language at issue in his live, now encoded-recorded-posted-accessible, interview), it remains to seen if this is a clear case of "plagiarism," defined at
dictionary.com as "n 1: a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work 2: the act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as if they were your own."
This reporter contacted California State Senator Tom McClintock's Senate office to inquire, and was referred to his campaign office. There, Jon Huey, a McClintock's campaign staffer and the Senator's designated spokesperson about the use of identical language in the Senator's article and the Gibson interview,
said:
"Well, basically, the Senator had a great conversation with Mel Gibson and we offered to help him with his opposition with 71 and through that the Senator gave him his talking points and, you know, we're working with him and he's using our talking points. That's it and that's a great partnership with ours and his."
After acknowledging that he had read the National Review Online "interview" with Mr. Gibson, Mr. Huey, when asked if he had any problem or objection to Mr. Gibson's use of language identical to that in Senator McClintock's "talking points," said that he had
"no problem, nor objections to that at all."
This reporter then sent an e-mail to Ms. Lopez documenting the apparent plagiarism, and, following that, spoke briefly with her by phone in her New York City office, asking if she'd received the e-mail. She said she'd received it but hadn't looked at it yet. She had no further comment.
No editors or other responsible individuals at
National Review Online were willing to comment on the issue of plagiarism being raised in this case.
For an intriguing discussion of what all this means, go to
"California Politics Today #171: Rising above mere plagiarism, we analyze its place in 'the Spectacle' and prepare for more Spectacle still".
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