Coulter’s bosses to investigate plagiarism charges

July 6, 2006

In case you missed it during the July 4th festivities, [tag]John Barrie[/tag], creator of the [tag]iThenticate[/tag] plagiarism-probing system, concluded that [tag]Ann Coulter[/tag] has repeatedly used words that are not her own in her syndicated column and best-selling book. As Editor & Publisher reported, [tag]Barrie[/tag], who holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized in pattern recognition, claimed to find at least three examples of what he called “textbook [tag]plagiarism[/tag]” in Coulter’s latest book and discovered verbatim copying in Coulter’s weekly column.

How would [tag]Universal Press Syndicate[/tag], which distributes Coulter’s column to more than 100 newspapers, respond to the charge? At this point, the company wants to know more. TPMmuckraker’s Justin Rood explained:

In an email, [Universal Press Syndicate’s Kathie Kerr] thanked me for bringing the assertions to UPS’s attention, and asked me to get a copy of the report to them. “If Mr. Barrie would be so kind to send Lee Salem, President and Editor of Universal Press Syndicate his report, we will be happy to review it. Until we do, there’s little we can say about it,” she wrote me. John Barrie was the New York Post’s expert source who claimed to have identified Coulter’s plagiarized passages.

In my reply, I explained to Kerr that Barrie had been quoted not by me but by the New York Post, and perhaps that paper would be a good source of information. Kerr replied: “we have no contact information.”

A few minutes later, however, Ms. Kerr located Barrie’s contact information on the Web and said she would try to call him herself. Moments later, another email from Ms. Kerr arrived: “I’ve left Mr. Barrie a message.”

It sounds a bit like Universal Press Syndicate was reluctant to investigate, but might have been shamed into it. This isn’t the kind of charge that’s easily ignored.

For her part, Coulter is, as usual, lashing out wildly, but there’s one thing missing from her response.

Ann Coulter unleashed her trademark venom at the New York Post today, after the tabloid reported the caustic opinionatrix had plagiarized content for her columns. (“The Post has been reduced to tabloid status,” Coulter charged.)

“Maybe the Post’s constant harassment of me is an attempt to shake me down for protection money like they did with billionaire businessman Ron Burkle. I have sold a LOT of books — more books, come to think of it, than any writers at the New York Post,” Coulter told Editor & Publisher.

Careful readers will note that within the venom, a denial is nowhere to be found.

I still think this has the potential to be a career-killer for Coulter. As I recall, the right gave up on Ben Domenech when he was exposed as a plagiarist because it’s the one line writers simply cannot cross. The right will stand by Coulter when she recommends killing war heroes or jokes about murdering Supreme Court justices, just so long as her words are her own. If not, she’s almost certainly on her own.

I haven’t seen Dr. Barrie’s report yet, but if it’s accurate, it’s hard to imagine Coulter spinning herself out of this one.

it’s odd that the post would eat their political own. then again, that is the republican way and they did have a good headline today about ken lay, saying his coffin should be checked to see that he was in it before it was put in the ground, and also calling him, brilliantly, “cheato lay.”

  • Annie must be having a hard time finding her happy place these days.

    1) The horse that Lady Coulter rode in on (Bush and the red staters) isn’t doing so well.
    2) That little thing about voting in the wrong district.
    3) Being accused of being a Plagerist

    “it’s hard to imagine Coulter spinning herself out of this one.”

    Oh she will, but well singed. Pretty (okay, allegedly pretty) celebs always seem to do. All they do is look “sad” and bat their lashes at some poor schlub and she’ll get the, “You’re so pretty with tjat long flowing hair and that prominent adam’s apple or yours, how can I throw you in jail or kill your column?” routine.

  • I admit, I said that Ann “the Bitch” Coulter would not be held accountable for her sins of plagiarism. So is Universal Press Syndicate really going to do anything? Maybe. But for right now, I’m sticking to my guns. This abuser of widows will walk away, though maybe some papers will manage to find the gumption to drop her, she will continue to be syndicated and will publish (though maybe not actually write) more books.

  • The only thing that will kill her career is a silver bullit or a wooden stake; come to think of it, it will probably take both!!

  • I liken the end of Coulter’s career to the finale of a classic horror movie.
    I see her attacking with full strength bile and venom with the wild freedom of nothing to lose, (being the end game of her nasty career), as she lashes out like a dying monster one last and glorious time at those tormentors who brought her down, and then (like in all horror movies), when you think she’s dead and turn your back…….she rises up again.

  • It’s a mistake to think of her as a writer; she’s something else entirely. Her schtick is as a performer, a spitting female lion (complete with golden mane) to be unleashed on hapless liberals like early christians at the roman Colosseum. Accuracy (and originality) in her statements is largely beside the point, since her ravening fans only care about spectacle, not truth.

    Given the nature of her fan base, and bearing in mind the effortless rehabilitation we’ve seen from the Limbaughs, Bennetts and Swaggarts, I don’t expect this will be more than a bump in the road for Coulter. The only real way we’ll be rid of any of these scum is by taking down the whole movement.

  • Analytical Liberal

    Don’t forget that wolfsbane (garlic) and a cross are also effective, if not deadly.

    And of course, one could also try a pail of water.

    I should however say that what I’ve seen on TPM is not all that convincing. On the other hand, E&P and Barie say that they have the goods.

  • As I said three days ago on this subject, in our world money tosses honesty and other such quaint virtues down the rabbit hole. If you were a pimp, would you want to give up one of your major hookers, just because the highly respected Bible says she’s a sinner? If you were a publisher, would you want to give up the money Coulter could make for you, just because the highly respected E&P says she might have plagiarized some? The key to this “moral” dilemma is this: can she be sued?

  • Angry young man, I think the New York Post attacked her because it’s a New York paper and Coulter attacked the 9/11 widows. Her statements can’t have been very popular in New York City even among the conservative readers of the Post.

    Ted Rall suffered consequences for a similar attack on “terror widows” in a cartoon, and since he was on the left there was little doubt or delay about it.

  • Her schtick is as a performer, a spitting female lion (complete with golden mane) -jimBOB

    It’s the male lion that has the mane. However, there are those that think they can see an adam’s apple on Annie, so your metaphor may stand up.

  • The Post has been reduced to tabloid status??

    She must not spend much time in NY as she’s at least 25 years too late.

  • Coulter can’t really be vampire. Vampires turn into an ugly, dried up bag of bones in exposed to the sun.

    Hmmm. Maybe I better think about that a little more. Has anyone actually seen her reflection in mirror?

  • And how about when she sort of “forgot” to mark a gender box on ‘her’ voter registration form in Florida? The only thing that will convince me s/he’s a natural-born female is a DNA test, and a darn comprehensive one at that.

    Here’s a simple plan to get rid of her:

    1) Stop buying her books.
    2) Stop puttting her on radio and television in any form.
    3) Stop paying her to make personal appearances.

    In other words, drown her wallet in a bathtub and she’ll disappear faster than a heat mirage in the Mojave desert.

    Is this likely? Maybe not, but the more poisonous she behaves and the more criticism she draws, the more possible it becomes that even the most iron-stomached sponser might not be able to stand it anymore. Let’s hope the time comes soon.

  • CB writes: “I still think this has the potential to be a career-killer for Coulter. As I recall, the right gave up on Ben Domenech when he was exposed as a plagiarist because it’s the one line writers simply cannot cross. The right will stand by Coulter when she recommends killing war heroes or jokes about murdering Supreme Court justices, just so long as her words are her own.”

    I don’t think so, CB. Domenech was a nobody who’s appointment to “balance” out coverage was criticized to begin with. jimBOB (#6) nails it. Coulter’s a rightwing entertainer not a journalist (aren’t they all) and this will not be a lasting problem for her. There is nothing these people can do or say that discredits them. “Youthful indiscretions” aside, the money keeps rolling in.

  • Hmmm, let’s see: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jayson Blair, Algore, Kaavya Viswanathan, Ward Churchill, Joe Biden and Michael Olesker. Does any of that ring a bell?

    Oh yea, that’s right, I should have used quotes; “does any of that ring a bell?” I’m sure someone invented that catch phrase some where down the line,…er…, “somewhere down the line.” Was it a purposeful heist, albeit a lifting of someone else’s originality? Or an accidental oversight by not using quotes to a generally known news item? Oh wait, I’m dealing with liberals and damn be the truth; guilty until proven innocent – right?

    The point is, when you hate based anti-American liberals spend half the time investigating all of the above socialists and liberals that you do in sniffing through every sentence of Coulter’s factual book, well, let me know because until then I’ll keep taking what you say, “with a grain of salt.”

    Your consistency and penchant for always embracing the double standard with your ‘do as I say, not as I do’ is a classic. Remember: keep up the bias and keep losing elections.

  • There is only one thing qualifies as the proper treatment of this buffoon, and that is the old “pie in the face”. The trick should be that the pie is made with something brown and nasty, as opposed to simple whipped cream.

  • MLK II – What do the people you mentioned have to do with whether or not Ann Coulter committed plagiarism? You do realize you have made no argument, don’t you? I’m very sorry if you think you said something relevant. Why didn’t you just type, “Carpetbagger U sux! Wingnut U rulez!”

  • I still think the plagiarism cited for the book seems very mild. Just because liberals want her to be a plagiarist doesn’t make it so. What I’ve heard about her past books is that rather than plagiarize, she is inclined to make quotes up and take them grossly out of context. (For instance, if someone were to say, “Here’s a list of things I don’t believe” she’s likely to leave off that sentence and offer up the list as if the person did believe in those things.)

    I have no doubt that Coulter has once again written a book that responsible people should challenge and which should lead to lawsuits by people she slanders. But hanging our outrage on just three sentences in an entire book — one of which I’ve already heard has been discredited — is unjust, and frankly, dumb.

  • Good point Catherine. Let’s wait and see what the evidence actually shows. What I’ve seen is about the same as you have and its not much.

    On the other hand, there is some delicious irony in the idea that she would have to defend herself against reckless and unjust accusations.

  • Um, hate to burst your bubble MLK II, but it was in fact liberal Democrats who exposed Biden’s unattributed speech. (Kind of like it was liberal Democrats who actually removed Rep. Jefferson from his Ways and Means position). Notice a pattern: we have principles, even when they hurt our own. Repubs change rules to protect the indicted and make inaccurate innuendo about how Joe Biden’s cribbed speech somehow makes it wrong to point our Coulter’s misfeasance. But you go ahead and defend ol Harpy Hound herself. Who someone stands up for is often very telling.

  • I am more concerned at WHAT she plagarized: Boilerplate.

    Her sole orginality conisists in the high opinion she has of herself.

  • Dream on. You hope and hope and hope and…Wait, we got Limbaugh!! YEAH FOR OUR SIDE…oops, got away again. back to sleep.zzzzzzz

  • I just looked at the evidence at TPM:

    http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001070.php

    This is a bad joke. If that is the evidence of plagarism then these charges are a pile of BS.

    Stupid and unfounded charges like this do nothing but destroy credibility. You think we would have learned something watching Bush’s credibility crumble under the weight of the facts.

    Josh Marshall has done a world of good with his investigative reporting, but if you ask me this is not his finest hour.

    Perhaps I wrong him in atrributing the accusations to his website, but certainly he has pushed them as much as anyone.

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