Apparently, Donald Trump has a penchant for plagiarists. First, it was wife Melania, now it’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications Monica Crowley being accused of plagiarism.
As we reported in 2004, allegations of Crowley plagiarism go back to 1999 when Slate noticed that a “Nixon apologia” she wrote for the Wall Street Journal bore “striking similarities in phraseology” to someone else’s work. That last quote came from an editor’s note a few days later in the Journal, Slate reported, which also said, “Had we known of the parallels, we would not have published the article.”
Slate also noted that despite the overwhelming evidence otherwise, Crowley insisted, in very Nixonian fashion, that she had not plagiarized.
Apparently, that incident did nothing to make Crowley more cautious in her writing. Today, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski found more than 50 examples of plagiarism in her 2012 book, published by Fox News’ sister company HarperCollins. Kaczynski wrote:
The review of Crowley’s June 2012 book, “What The (Bleep) Just Happened,” found upwards of 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including the copying with minor changes of news articles, other columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia. The New York Times bestseller, published by the HarperCollins imprint Broadside Books, contains no notes or bibliography.
Crowley did not return a request for comment. Multiple requests for comment by phone and email over the past two days to HarperCollins went unreturned.
[…]
Trump’s transition team is standing by Crowley.
“Monica’s exceptional insight and thoughtful work on how to turn this country around is exactly why she will be serving in the Administration,” a statement from a transition spokesperson said. “HarperCollins—one of the largest and most respected publishers in the world—published her book which has become a national best-seller. Any attempt to discredit Monica is nothing more than a politically motivated attack that seeks to distract from the real issues facing this country.”
Kaczynski provides so many examples, from so many different sources, of similarities between her work and others that nobody with a scintilla of integrity or common sense could conclude that they were coincidences.
Crowley has long had a rather - er, interesting - relationship with facts. We have caught her many times promoting wacky conspiracy theories on Fox. Watch one of our favorites below, in which Crowley accused CBS’ Bob Schieffer of offering secretly-coded campaign suggestions to Obama advisor David Axelrod, from a 2010 appearance on The O’Reilly Factor.
Crowley image via screen grab.
Why do I believe this? Well, how many OTHER people would waste so much space and, not one single time, use the first person pronouns when they should be used.
For instance, this passage: “All across America the black vote “boycott” masterminded by Todd Elliott Koger effectuated an insurmountable obstruction for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.”
If this is actually the “Todd Elliott Koger” referred to in the passage, why not write “me” in the sentence, rather than a bizarre third-person construct.
And, again in this passage: “There is correspondence to the Trump campaign that outlined “Koger’s Plan.” There was a “Thank you for the suggestion” reply. And, President-Elect Donald Trump’s verbatim use of Mr. Koger’s exact same words during “online videos” and speeches that followed in Michigan, Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and Pennsylvania.”
Why not “my plan” and “verbatim use of my words” in it, if this is actually “Todd Elliott Koger” instead of some troll, stealing someone else’s works.
Indeed, the passages I quoted, I clearly remember from that earlier screed, because I spent time Googling this “Todd Elliott Kroger” and found there to be a man who was involved in Pittsburgh, PA politics, on some elected board or something (I don’t feel like bothering to look it up again). The man was TROUNCED in a PETTY LOCAL election, and yet, for some insane reason, he believes that he wielded enough power and influence to lead a “boycott” affecting the African-American vote in four states.
If this is the same Koger actually posting as the individual mentioned in the screed, then, dude, learn how to fucking write a story about yourself in the FIRST person. This kind of garbage you’re posting is little more than plagiarism (the very stuff that Crowley’s being taken to task over), and even the subject of a story does NOT have a right to take someone else’s words and post them as his or her own.
But, please, do us all a favor, and go away. And this time, stay away.
At least until you learn how to post a comment using YOUR own words—rather than stealing someone else’s. And if you really ARE the “Todd Elliott Koger” from that little crapfest, it’s no wonder you can’t even win a measly little local political contest—you’re an idiot. I wouldn’t trust you to write a shopping list much less handle public resources and money.
If Trump lives up to the fears and dread of my brother and sister liberals, then you will be the guy who talked the chickens into voting for Colonel Sanders.
