Politics and Plagiarism
The big brouhaha in Colorado these days is Scott McInnis (Republican) for governor and the accusation that he plagiarized an article over 10 years ago. He was paid $300,000 for this article – I must be doing something wrong, as a freelance writer I’ve never seen this kind of money in my lifetime!
The way the news media is playing this plagiarism case out you would think that he
1. cheated on his taxes,
2. was a sex offender or
3. cheated on his wife.
I believe because he is a Republican candidate for governor, the biased media in this town is jumping on this case. No democrat ever did this thing did they?
If he was writing a thesis for his Master’s or Doctorate degree, I would agree that his was a big deal. But come on now, you tell me where you can find articles or even speeches that wasn’t plagiarized? One I can think of was V.P. Joe Biden who used someone else’s words in one of his speeches. Where was the outrage there? Where was the cry for him to step down from office?
In fact, when I started freelance writing many years ago I sent an article to a well-known magazine hoping that they would publish my article. Never heard back from them but about 3 months later, low and behold there was my article written by a staff writer for their magazine. Now that’s a case of plagiarism that I probably could have pursued, but I didn’t. These things happen all the time.
As for Mr. Scott McInnis, he’s apologized and said that he would work out paying back the money. Now even many Republicans, Tom Tancredo for one, want him to step down and not run for governor. Oh, did I mention that Mr. Tancredo will put his hat in the ring in place of Mr. McInnis – sounds like politics as usual.
In my opinion, Mr. McInnis did nothing wrong and this should not be an issue at all. At least he’s not a tax cheat, sex offender or wife cheater like some of the other side seem to find.
Until later,
Linda
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