Comments on: Al Franken Is A Plagiarist

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The evidence is underwhelming. He uses a few of the same words from a different source. That Domenech guy copied 3-4 sentences at a time verbatim.

I'm open to more investigations by this Skorski guy, but right now he doesn't have much.

And, honestly, why bother labeling Franken a plagiarist when we already have ample proof that he's a lazy, disingenuous, terrorism-excusing partisan hack?

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I heard Skorski actually hacked into FAIR's website and inserted that passage to make it look eerily similar to a passage in Franken's book.

Which all sarcasm aside would make any criticism of Skorski's credibilty irrelevant.

By: Sigivald

Sigivald — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Much as I don’t like Franken much, this doesn’t seem like much.

One phrase? (I don’t see that mentioning "liberals" and "conservatives" in such a context is anything but obvious and thus not plagiaristic evidence in itself, but "globetrotter-like" is pretty unlikely)

Franken’s lapse is as easily explained by subconsciously remembering an interesting turn of phrase as by plagiarism.

I’ll let my dislike of him stand as un-funny, generally wrong, and not very interesting. "Plagiarist", though, just isn’t well-established enough by this evidence.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Why didn’t you put the example in your post, Rob? Didn’t want to put on your frontpage how undeserving of thought Skorski’s trumped-up charges are?

I guess I’ll never be able to use the phrase "a Harlem Globetrotters game" as a metaphor for the current state of political discourse for fear of being charged with plagiarism…

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Haha. I guess we’re ALL guilty of plagiarism!

By: Robert Perry

Robert Perry — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

WND certainly isn’t as bad a source as, say, the NY Times. :^)

That said, I’d say that the Hannity & Colmes/Crossfire/Harlem Globetrotters thing probably was lifted from FAIR. It’s not word for word, to be sure, but the likelihood of choosing the same show and the same cultural phenomenon for comparison is low, and Franken’s politics are a good fit with FAIR’s.

It’s interesting and highly ironic, by the way, that Franken’s rhetoric is far more balanced & measured than that of "Fairness & Accuracy In Media," and moreover a little bit less obnoxious than the 24 point font of Don’s link.

By: Robert Perry

Robert Perry — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr. Mickey, given that many people do take Franken seriously, we do occasionally do well to take a look at his character. In this case, I personally find it unlikely that he just "happened" upon the same two analogies as did (un)FAIR, and this is yet another example of where Franken fails the honesty test.

And Moonbatman, that’s a nice string of weblog "sources." Do you have any primary or secondary evidence to present?

By: modern instances

modern instances — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Maloney: "It’s Al’s name there on the cover, isn’t he on the hook for what’s inside?"

Rob: "Regardless, he is on the cover so he is on the hook."

By: Mickey Moussaoui

Mickey Moussaoui — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It’s only Al Franken…does anyone really care?

By: moonbatman

moonbatman — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of the tools of debate and argument are repeated. I didn't make up the idea of an Ad Hominem attack, but I shouldn't have to drop a footnote to some old Greek guy every time I respond to or make one. When you write about something being a "red herring," I'm not going to make you drop a footnote. I know the idea of something being a "red herring" wasn't your original idea, but I'm not going to impose some impossible burden of citing your authority every time you use the expression.

Talk of Crossfire/Globetrotters mergers don't come as a big surprise. Next you'll go after (or give authorship credit to[?]) "def rimjob" here http://www.haloscan.com/comments.php?user=atrios&comment=106751874645858837 or "infinitussollux" at http://forum.deviantart.com/community/politics/599813/ or John Stewart quoted here http://kydem.blogspot.com/2005/04/sunday-roundup.html or Michael Kinsley (of Crossfire fame), in 1996, here http://www.milligan.edu/Communications/Library/Articles1/atlan3.htm. I tend to think that none of them should have to drop a footnote to all the others when they repeat the same expectable simile.

And the Ben Domenech thing is just a blatant case of ripping off someone else's stuff. If you've done a side by side comparison, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, you should. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/24/13724/1544

Apples and oranges.

If you -- or Sikorski -- catch Franken plagiarizing something, I agree he should be called on the carpet [See, The Bible -- Acts 11:1-18]. You might hate Franken, Rob, and that's fine. But don't pretend that some political hack crying wolf [See, Aesop's "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" (circa. 620 BC - 560 BC)] has legitimized your hatred.