Maureen Dowd’s plagiarism
Dowd’s borrowed line and the relationship between journalists and liberal bloggers
Maureen Dowd is having a rough Monday, said Allahpundit in Hot Air. The New York Times columnist was caught “cribbing” a long line—questioning the Bush administration’s motives for using “torture”—from a blog post by Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall. Dowd’s “unspeakably lame” excuse is that a friend fed her the line, but this just the latest in a string of cases demonstrating how much newspapers are influenced by the liberal blogosphere.
It’s silly to use the “Maureen Dowd–Josh Marshall plagiarism incident” as evidence of liberal bias in media, said Nate Silver in FiveThirtyEight. “The reason that liberal blogs are cited more often in the mainstream media is because they are more plentiful and more widely read than conservative blogs.” Liberals just dominate blogs the way conservatives dominate talk radio.
It’s certainly safe to say that reporters, editors, TV news producers, and pundits read lots of political blogs, said Glenn Greenwald in Salon. At the very least, this smashes the myth that bloggers are “parasites” stealing the work of real journalists. Dowd’s “wholesale, uncredited copying”—which she has admitted—showed that “the parasitical behavior is often the reverse of how it is depicted.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Good riddance to the televised presidential debate'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Caitlin Clark the No. 1 pick in bullish WNBA Draft
Speed Read As expected, she went to the Indiana Fever
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 16, 2024
Cartoons Tuesday's cartoons - sleepyhead, little people, and more
By The Week US Published