Friday, February 3, 2017

More Fake News?

Awhile back I wrote about CNN allegations of plagiarism directed at Monica Crowley, who was at the time nominee for director of communications at the Trump National Security Council. Later I wrote she had taken her name out of contention for that position.

Now Andrew C. McCarthy describes at National Review research showing the allegations were roughly an 80-90% made-up  hit job and maybe 10% or less valid. Instead of much plagiarism, it appears to be relatively little and inadvertent.

If McCarthy reports accurately, it would appear CNN omitted footnotes which showed that Crowley had paraphrased with attribution. Doing so is an entirely legal scholarly technique, one not considered plagiarism.

I don't propose to replicate the research myself. Lets conclude the original CNN allegations appear to be in some serious question, and were apparently done with malice.

Dr. Crowley is a bright, articulate spokesperson for conservative causes. I hope this is the beginning of a rehabilitation of her reputation.