Plagiarism serious matter to be dealt with in academia
By: Lawrence Souder
Issue date: 4/16/04 Section: Ed-Op
Originally published: 4/15/04 at 9:37 PM EST
Last update: 4/18/04 at 9:33 PM EST
Originally published: 4/15/04 at 9:37 PM EST
Last update: 4/18/04 at 9:33 PM EST
In 2002, Doris Kearns Goodwin admitted plagiarizing from other authors in writing her 1987 best seller The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys. As a consequence she was forced to withdraw from the Pulitzer Prize board, leave her role as commentator on the PBS NewsHour and forfeit two invitations to speak at U.S. universities.
In 2003, Jayson Blair became perhaps the most publicized plagiarist when he resigned from his post at the New York Times. Among other misdeeds, he was accused of plagiarizing a story from the San Antonio Express-News.
The public exposure of these acts of misappropriating intellectual property damaged the personal reputations and prospects of these three otherwise successful and competent people. Most public figures, however, seem to have landed on their feet, if not benefited from their new notoriety. Biden is still a U.S. Senator, Goodwin is still writing for the New York Times and Time magazine, and Blair's advance on his book Burning Down My Master's House is reputed to be in the six-figure range.
Perhaps a more compelling case can be made for plagiarists' effects of their ethical lapses on the wider society. When otherwise good people do bad things, we might argue, our experience of the resulting dissonance may force us to revise our ethical principles and moral standards rather than our judgment of the ethically questionable behavior. Such was the case with Martin Luther King Jr. What else can we do when we discover that someone so venerated as King had been less than saintly in his formative years? The ethically weary resignation in Michael Dyson's book I May Not Get There with You is understandable, when he says: "King's plagiarism at school is perhaps a sad symptom of his response to the racial times in which he matured." To object that Dyson is soft on plagiarism, however, wobbles in the face of challenges based in cultural diversity. Not all cultures share the Western, neoliberal obsession with intellectual property rights that makes us academics so indignant over plagiarism.
In 2003, Jayson Blair became perhaps the most publicized plagiarist when he resigned from his post at the New York Times. Among other misdeeds, he was accused of plagiarizing a story from the San Antonio Express-News.
The public exposure of these acts of misappropriating intellectual property damaged the personal reputations and prospects of these three otherwise successful and competent people. Most public figures, however, seem to have landed on their feet, if not benefited from their new notoriety. Biden is still a U.S. Senator, Goodwin is still writing for the New York Times and Time magazine, and Blair's advance on his book Burning Down My Master's House is reputed to be in the six-figure range.
Perhaps a more compelling case can be made for plagiarists' effects of their ethical lapses on the wider society. When otherwise good people do bad things, we might argue, our experience of the resulting dissonance may force us to revise our ethical principles and moral standards rather than our judgment of the ethically questionable behavior. Such was the case with Martin Luther King Jr. What else can we do when we discover that someone so venerated as King had been less than saintly in his formative years? The ethically weary resignation in Michael Dyson's book I May Not Get There with You is understandable, when he says: "King's plagiarism at school is perhaps a sad symptom of his response to the racial times in which he matured." To object that Dyson is soft on plagiarism, however, wobbles in the face of challenges based in cultural diversity. Not all cultures share the Western, neoliberal obsession with intellectual property rights that makes us academics so indignant over plagiarism.
