Say It Ain't So, MoDo

Did Maureen Dowd commit a firing offense by, she says, inadvertently lifting a paragraph from Talking Points Memo? I don't think so, but what happens hardly reflects well on Dowd or her column.

To recap: Dowd's Sunday column on the debate over torture contained a paragraph taken nearly word-for-word from a post by Josh Marshall. When a TPMCafe blogger pointed this out, Dowd quickly admitted error and properly attributed the relevant paragraph. The Times ran a correction.

End of story? Surely that's what the Times and Dowd want, and in all probability their quick response - far superior to the grudging, circle-the-wagons responses to similar problems in the past - will be effective.

But the response raised more questions than it answers. Critics are focusing on the fact of Marshall's words showing up in Dowd's column. But in some sense that's irrelevant. If she had known that paragraph came from TPM, it's unlikely she would have reprinted it without attribution. (On Imus today, Frank Rich cited this as a reason in her defense.)

But assuming her explanation is true, and she's soliciting input from friends and cutting-and-pasting it into columns, that's worse in some ways than cribbing from published work. It meets the dictionary definition of plagiarism: "a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work." It's also lazy, shoddy journalism. And it's virtually undetectable.

Last year Dowd got into hot water for not attributing the reporting work of her assistant. Sunday's incident gives us an additional window on the slapdash way a MoDo column is assembled. Dowd could be using the vast resources and reach of the Times and her substantial writer's gifts to produce a great column. That's the whole idea, right? Instead, it looks like the faux-juices kids drink - perhaps 50% real Maureen Dowd, 50% other ingredients.

Comments

[rabiddog6708]

There once was a scribe named Dowd
who fancied a quote her friend spoke aloud
She mingled the quote with those that she wrote
and told all she forgot how.

[jsomerville5]

Another blogger pointed out that Dowd filched another phrase from that same Marshall column:

"old-fashioned P.O.W".
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/kenneth_thomas/2009/05/more-to-the-maureen-dowd-plagi.php?ref=reccafe

Coincidence? Not if Dowd read Marshall's article herself. I believe her story about her "friend" giving her the material is a piece of crock.

[woodsywizz]

A New York Times Columnist, Dowd,
Of her work is exceptionally proud.
When others "plagiarize",
She cuts them to size,
But of course, for her, it is allowed!

[ (C) jch 19 May 2009]

I'm just being snarky right back at her; she howled when Vice President Biden forgot, ONCE, to attribute a phrase to Mr. Neal Kinnock. He attributed in every speech but one, clearly by mistake; her column made him out to be a plagiarist, when he only make a mistake. Once.
Now "the shoe's on the other foot" * and her excuse is truly lame.
Maybe we all should be more tolerant, huh, Maureen?

*Common folk saying of unknown origin. How's that for "attribution"? ;-)

[jojojo]

This is just the sort of incident that MoDo would enjoy having a caustic, puerile, oh-so-clever good time with.

She stole someone else's work, and not for the first time.

She should be shown the door.

[jsomerville5]

It appears that she also stole a second phrase from Marshall's column, as pointed out by a sharp-eyed blogger last night.

The phrase is "old fashioned P.O.W". This is just too coincidental. Dowd had to have read the column.

"More to the Dowd Plagiarism Than She Admits"

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/kenneth_thomas/2009/05/more-to-the-maureen-dowd-plagi.php?ref=reccafe

[provgrays]

Dowd has been successful for a long time. She got lazy and she was caught. Doris Kearns Goodwin seems to have survived her "unintentional" mistakes but Dowd should devote a column to a sincere apology if she hopes to outlive this.

[jojojo]

An apology would only be the sort offered after an adulteress has been caught. And that sort of apology is always too late.

The only thing she's sorry about is that she got caught stealing.

[provgrays]

Mike Barnicle made up stuff while working in Boston and now he is a celebrated hack in New York. People get burned on a case by case basis.

[bugsbonzai]

How is it that in this day and age there are countless adept, intellectual, compelling, unique writers barreling out several great editorial essays EACH DAY on the internet, but Dowd can't write a short column or two a WEEK without lifting from others? Just another sign that newspapers are an archaic form that will not last long. These lazy writers have such a gross sense of entitlement it sickens me.

[David Adolphus]

That has what to do with newspapers? The 'Times owe you money or something?

[JudgeMoonbox]

I remember a few years back when some famous historians were caught plagierizing the works of lesser known historians. As I recall, Steven Ambrose was the main culprit (If someone remembers that scandal and has the correct name, I apologize in advance).

One comment I do remember from that was that someone thought these people had droit du seigneur to plagierize. It appears that Maureen Dowd puts herself in the same category.

[woodsywizz]

It WAS Stephen Ambrose. He worked with old-fashioned notecards and didn't mark the quotation correctly. It was horribly embarassing, but didn't seem to detract from the larger body of his work, which includes "Band of Brothers."

The paragraph in question came from "Wild Blue: 741 Squadron - On A Wing and a Prayer Over Occupied Europe."
It described the view, and feeling, of breaking through the overcast and drizzle into the sunny blue sky above the clouds. Any aviator knows that feeling. It doesn't get old.

"Wild Blue" is an excellent book, a biography of George McGovern's 35 missions over Germany as a WWII B-24 "Liberator" bomber pilot.

[wsblake]

Oh yeah, but where was all the controversy when Judith Miller lied us into war ? Once again, a non-issue gets all the air time to deflect the real evil.

[v eyepete]

Wouldn't it have been better for Ms Dowd to have said, 'I cut and pasted and in my hurry to meet the deadline I neglected the quotes and the proper credit due.? But she made up a lie that can't be believed by anyone who writes on a regular basis. Her lie lost her credibility, not her mistake.

[JudgeMoonbox]

"But she made up a lie that can't be believed by anyone who writes on a regular basis. Her lie lost her credibility, not her mistake."
Isn't that standard operating procedure for the woman who said of Al Gore:"He's so feminized, he's practically lactating?"

I wouldn't say this in front of the jury if Josh Mitchell sued her; but Maureen Dowd is a flake. Her comeuppance is way overdue.

[jojojo]

Exactly right.

[ojaivickie]

this scenario brings to mind TINA FEY as Sarah Palin : "i don't understand the media's incessant need to understand why i use the words i do or why i arrange them in that particular order" or something like that ... and also too :
"Why is the fact that Dowd lifted this paragraph being treated like a much bigger story than the content of the paragraph, which makes a strong case that detainees were being tortured for political reasons totally unrelated to national security? Charles Duelfer, the man Bush sent to Iraq to search for WMDs corroborated that possibility when he revealed that the Bush Administration tried to get the US military to torture prisoners of war into confessing to a non-existent connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. This is a REAL scandal, and shows just how close the US came to being a police state under Dick Cheney's rule."
attributed to SpaceGuy from politico.com

some of my favorite recent NYT columns by Maureen:
Palin goes AWOL (scene from screenplay)
unique and original Latin dialect = tu betchas !
post-election homage to Obama

[Bulbul]

There was a time , when I couldn`t wait to read Dowd`s column , and when Tennessean decided not to rerun, I even called to complain. But that was yesterday...lately , her columns are nothing but one liners, truely looks like a cut and paste job, if you give it a thought.
Also, Moureen dishes out plenty and should be able to take it when it comes in her direction....

[Netizen]

I think it was inadvertent. She quoted "The Washington Note" blog in the previous paragraph, why wouldn't she attribute another blog quote - especially something that would obviously be noticed? Basically a typo. She probably pasted it and forgot to put the attribution lead-in to the paragraph. She has quoted others often lately.

She doesn't need any help writing her column.

[billw8017]

I was greatly impressed by Ms Dowd's piece on Steven Colbert in the Village Voice, and made a point of checking back to see who wrote it. Suddenly, I understood why the NYT gave her a column. Too, bad the columns aren't as good, but they are still kind of neat.

As a general thing, the truth is one thing and it sits there for all to see. Originality is vastly overrated and most easily an expression of fantasy. If Ms Dowd has literate and clever friends -- and, why wouldn't she, she lives and writes in New York City -- she does us all a service by sharing their insights.

[valkyrie607]

Maureed Dowd's columns mostly consist of half-baked psychosexual political hackery. It figured that the one time she makes a cogent point, it's someone else's.

[NWNHNM]

The article in question by MODO (or should I say Marshall) was one of the few I've read "by her" that is worth reading. Most of "her" columns are not the 20 seconds of scanning that it takes before you realize that yes, again, "her" column is nothing but drivel. Most read like bad cut-and-paste jobs anyway.

And since when is anything "she writes" journalism?

She should just provide a headline, and then link to an online column (almost anyone else's column) and leave it at that.

MODO, we'll pay you to stay home.

[astral66]

Just how does one take a comment from a friend, and end up with the exact same quote as Josh Marshall had on his blog, right down to the exact same placement of the commas?

This is such a lame cover-up.

[Bulbul]

First a lie , then another lie to cover that ! Sounds familiar is it not ?
Oh wait , how many times Dowd have penned that about someone else we all know of ?

[Troyxx]

Souldn't we just shoot her out of a cannon for her many journalistic crookedneses

[janemp]

I've done a LOT of research. It is habit for me to put quotations marks around a direct quote. Also, if I'm taking notes, I don't write in complete sentences. Anything that is in a complete sentence is obviously a direct quote--any one who does research knows that.

Whereas I don't think this should cost her a career, it is a mistake and should be acknowledged.