“When you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.’’
— American playwright and raconteur Wilson Mizner, 1876-1933
Plagiarism — the act of literary theft that rivals shoplifting in respect to the shame that often remains forever attached to the practitioner — is an equal-opportunity occupational hazard that lurks in the weeds waiting to take a bite out of more than just the occasional sloppy journalist shuffling by. Les Otten, one of seven candidates for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the June 8 primary election, can vouch for that.
On Monday, the Otten campaign demanded the resignation of a speechwriter who, in preparing a written response to a reporter’s questions concerning Otten’s education policy, allegedly had lifted passages word for word from recent legislative testimony by a spokesman for Portland’s Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative think tank.
Accepting responsibility for what he called “a serious mistake,’’ Otten apologized to the Maine Heritage Policy Center, said his campaign has zero tolerance for such practices, and suggested that his quick action was an example of how he will govern should he become Maine’s next governor.
The website spiritus-temporis.com offers a good working definition of plagiarism: “Plagiarism refers to the use of another’s information, language or writing, when done without proper acknowledgment of the original source. Essential to an act of plagiarism is an element of dishonesty in attempting to pass off the plagiarized work as original … An example of plagiarism would be copying this definition and pasting [it] straight into a report.’’
Alert readers will note that in incorporating the definition into this weekly rant I gave credit to the source. Had Otten’s speechwriter done likewise with his source, the Otten campaign would not be stuck with whatever collateral damage the incident may have spawned.
Why the simple act of attribution in such matters seems to be a foreign concept to some writers — the more so in an age when technological advances make possible a quick search of online databases to smoke out literary copy cats — remains one of life’s minor mysteries.
Charges of plagiarism abound in just about any profession you’d care to name. Journalism, politics, medicine, science, academia, entertainment and many other fields are susceptible to the affliction, as the website famousplagiarists.com reports in extensive research on the subject.
Under such categories as “Index of Plagiarists’’ and “Plagiary’s Hall of Shame,’’ the site analyzes plagiarism accusations against some pretty powerful A-list personalities including Vice President Joe Biden in his younger days, historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose and the late liberal columnist Molly Ivins.
As well, there are numerous detailed accounts of newspaper reporters who have run afoul of literary theft charges, including an ironic tale of one chap who was accused of plagiarism in reporting on a rival’s alleged plagiarism. Editorial cartoonists are not exempt from accusations of “visual plagiarism,’’ nor are newspaper and magazine illustrators who copy a rival’s graphic design. The site references a case in which an editorial cartoon published in a Connecticut newspaper in 1981 reappeared essentially stroke for stroke two decades later as the work of a cartoonist at an Oklahoma paper. Talk about your basic “oops’’ moment.
Since there are only so many ways one can write — or rewrite — a fact, minimally matching text that might occur when two people write about the same subject is not necessarily plagiarism on the part of one writer, the site acknowledges. It’s when a writer commandeers entire passages of another’s work without attribution that the trouble begins, especially if his word-for-word text includes errors made by the real author. Oops, again.
Plagiarism accusations can be the kiss of death for the careers of many writers. For others, including the heavy hitters mentioned earlier, the unpleasantness can prove to be but a speed bump on the road to fame and fortune. No one ever promised life would be fair.
Nor is there much solace for politicians whose campaigns may be hit with a literary theft rap. As famousplagiarists.com neatly puts it, “If the plagiarism charges stick, the accused is forever tainted, corrupted and sullied with the justly reprehensible behavior. Even if the speechwriter is the real culprit.’’
BDN columnist Kent Ward lives in Limestone. Readers may reach him by e-mail at olddawg@bangordailynews.com.