and I'm not convinced what she did amounts to much of it. If you want a good example of the twisted notions of morality that rule in academia and the goddamned media, the reaction to an accusation of stealing words as opposed to, oh, mass killing, waging unprovoked invasions and wars, economic policy that knowingly causes death and maiming, etc. AND BALD FACED LYING IN THE MASS MEDIA TO DAMAGE PEOPLES' LIVES AND DEMOCRACY is the shame of the free press, the flower of a twisted interpretation of the First Amendment.
I wrote about that in one of the early pieces I wrote for my first blog.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Feet of Clay Words of Steel
You could be forgiven for getting it wrong. I certainly did. Some of us thought that the self evident crisis in journalism today were the cumulative repeated, uncorrected errors in fact, the inventions of quotations, the verbatim stenography and similar violations of the ever adjustable Code of Journalistic Ethics -- "Gore claims to invent internet, " being the poster example. We assumed that the overarching crisis was that the corporate consolidation of the media had rendered our journalism a tawdry pose fit only to fill up spaces on the cable band so the best in rerun sit-coms could go premium. But we were wrong.
The great crisis facing this foundation of democracy, itself, is that someone has been at the cooky jar, someone's been stealing their snickerdoodles. The great flood of plagiarism is the real danger that faces the nation, with front page stories and network news segments presenting in indepth report on the rolling crime wave. A rather flashy and enterprising Harvard co-ed (having read some of 'her' words I think she has earned the title) has borrowed from an even more eminent auteur of her genre. An executive at Raytheon has taken time off from producing engines of mass death to pilfer the wisdom of one of the ancients of his tribe. And now, we are told that a nameless intra-network jegg has broken into the word hoard of the fictitious President Bartlett of "The West Wing" applying the stolen phrases to the real life news story of an heroic horse trainer. This may be the first instance in history of words written for a fictitious president to say, we assume written by fictitious ghost writers, being applied to what passes as news on our major networks. Though that might be too much to hope at this stage of our politics.
Given that the typical West Wing script is full of references to numerous works other than the script writers' the big deal on this one escapes some of us. A point made online before it was also made on a certain Boston TV program the other night.
Um, hum.
Understand this, though. The press has seen enough. It will act.
So while the Cheney and Bush crime syndicates steal everything in sight, waging wars of conquest abroad, stealing elections and the U.S. Treasury here. As they hand out patronage money and the public schools to any hallelujah peddler with an R after their name. As they dismantle the national parks and turn them into franchise operations for extraction industries we can rest easy. Even as the free press watches the Republican Party donate the internet to the telecom industry, the media can be counted on to provide protection. For their words. Their intellectual property at so-many-cents apiece, down to the most putrid swill issuing from the conservative nepotism newslets, will be made safe from those who would borrow them without attribution and compensation.
Note: Officially, Al Gore pointing out, correctly, that he had a hand in founding the internet is over the top, the Republicans stealing it for their campaign contributors is just swell. Just for those who like to keep track of current ethics. Also note: Since on one gets killed, no one loses their pension and no wildlife habitat is destroyed in the act, plagiarism is a moderately naughty thing to do and at times actionable. This piece is not an invitation to commit crimes or violate the rights of authors to just compensation for their work. Since a "journalist" may read this I should point out that it is an invitation to the press to do their jobs.
Gay is not going to prison.
ReplyDeleteShe will be on the Harvard faculty and make more than 99.9% of the US population.
She will also be a fool's martyr.
So, no, plagiarism is not a crime akin to warmongering, but I don't know of anyone saying she should be sent to Leavenworth.
Like Clint Eastwood, it appears you're talking to a chair with no one in it.
You seem to misunderstand my point. I wasn't addressing criminal penalties, I was addressing the reaction of the media to whipped up charges against a Black Woman who was chosen to lead one of the elite private institutions of privilege. And I was addressing the media feeding frenzy that has developed around People of Color in such positions and, especially, Women of Color. Clint Eastwood was dementedly objectifying a Black Man in a transparent appeal to racism, which doesn't surprise me considering his career and Hollywood, in general.
ReplyDeleteConsidering Harvard has hired actual war criminals such as Henry Kissinger and even the man who was declared one of the most stupid men in the world, Doug Feith (who, by the way, was also hired by at least two other elite universities), not to mention the likes of Alan Dershowitz - torture advocate and supporter of Republican-fascism, whatever imaginary sins she was accused of are nothing compared to what white men regularly get away with there. Larry Summers cost them a bundle with his incompetence and they kept him on far longer.