Plagiarist Monica Crowley has yet another conspiracy theory to promote and this one involves her own self: She’s the victim of “a despicable straight-up political hit job.” That would be the “political hit job” that found more than 50 examples of plagiarism in her last book, alone.
Here’s what I wrote on January 16, after Crowley announced she had decided to “pursue other opportunities” instead of joining the Donald Trump administration as she had planned:
As we reported in December, CNN found more than 50 examples of plagiarism in her last book, which her publisher subsequently stopped selling. In 2004, we previously reported that a 1999 Wall Street Journal Editorial by Crowley contained so many similarities to another article by someone else, the paper wrote, “Had we known of the parallels, we would not have published the article.”
Since the CNN report, Politico found numerous examples of plagiarism in Crowley’s 2000 Ph.D. dissertation.
But hey, as Crooks and Liars asked, how soon before Fox News puts her back on the air?
The answer: it took less than two months for Crowley to return to Fox. Last night, she got a warm welcome from Sean Hannity (transcript excerpts via Fox News, with my emphases added):
HANNITY: She is back. Our good friend of the program, conservative commentator and author, writer, Monica Crowley. Welcome back. How are you?
Hannity didn’t mention any of the inconvenient details of Crowley’s absence. Instead, he set up her victimization:
HANNITY: So you were going to go to the administration. You got viciously attacked. And by the way, you’re not the only one. It’s Bannon, it’s Reince, it’s Kellyanne, it’s Steve Miller, it’s even Melania, and they’re going after Jared, they’re going after Ivanka, they even went after a 10-year-old kid.
It’s pretty ugly. Now they’re going after Sebastian Gorka which is ridiculous. But it seems that anyone around the president is getting attacked. And I wanted to give you a chance, because you hadn’t been out there publicly for personal and other reasons, to respond to this.
CROWLEY: Well, look, what happened to me was a despicable, straight up political hit job, OK. It’s been debunked. My editor has completely supported me and backed me up.
It’s not clear which editor she is claiming “supported” and “backed” her because publisher HarperCollins has not resumed selling her book. She doesn't seem to have her Fox News contributor gig back, either.
But we know Crowley has not changed a bit because she’s still coming up with wacky – and unsubstantiated – conspiracy theories.
CROWLEY: In some ways I was something of the canary in the coal mine. The attack on me was a test. What happened to me, what happened to General Flynn, what has happened to Attorney General Sessions and others is all of a piece. There is a very dangerous and very effective destabilization campaign underway against this president, his administration and his agenda. And what I hope that the president and his senior aides understand is that these forces are not just looking to delegitimize him. We often talk about that. Sure they want to do that. They want to personally destroy him, destroy his presidency, and they would like to see the man in prison. I hope that the president understands. I am not overstating this, having been a victim of this myself. They are out for blood.
And the reason they have to destroy him is that Donald Trump is an alien organism that has been injected into the body politic by the American people to reform it. He must not be allowed to succeed. They have swarmed him, they have everybody around him in order to reject him out of the system just like any alien organism. He must not be allowed to succeed.
And I hope that everybody around him now understands that this is a war, and that they started a long time ago, but they will not end until they get the president of the United States.[…]
They want him in prison. And this is what we need to understand.
[…]
David Brock and some of these organizations have already raised tens of millions of dollars for an impeachment process. Then they want jail to the chief. They need to understand that this is a war. We are so far beyond normal politics, Sean, we are in a very dangerous moment. While President Trump is a very strong leader and a man of strong constitution, he was able to survive all of this during the campaign and get elected president. When you’re president and you are faced with the kind of monolithic opposition you’re talking about, plus a federal bureaucracy that is completely out to undermine him every day, the intelligence community that is engaged in some of this as well that we have heard, I hope to God that he is strong enough to withstand this. Because if he succeeds, the country changes for the good, and they must not allow that to happen.
And how did Trump’s partner-in-trying-to-destroy-President-Obama, respond?
“What a strong, powerful admonition. We missed you,” Hannity said.
Watch the proof that almost anything is OK on Fox if you’re a Republican below, from the March 7, 2017 Hannity.