Plagiarizing by a Party Organ: Star Tribune as Echo Chamber

 by Gary Larson  

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When the Bush-bashing is this good, you just have to adopt the words as your own.

Stealing others’ intellectual work product is seen as one of civilized society’s lesser sins. It is easily knowable by word or image comparisons.  Call it cheating.  Those who engage in plagiarism are lazy, unethical louts to be denigrated, maybe called disgusting names — like lazy, unethical louts.

Intellectually dishonest, too. Plagiarism is no small (or laughing) matter.  Journalistic ethics are clear about plagiarism; it is verboten! 

Still, the Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune does it in its lead editorial on Nov. 10. Be it known, first, this intensely partisan daily is biased to its ultraliberal core, and tone-deaf, even its news package often suspect of slanting left. The McClatchy-owned paper is written off by serious conservatives as little more than a silly party organ for liberal Democrats, whom it endorses for office nearly wall-to-wall.  One astute reader says its design and use of white space are its prime appeals.

Over the years the newspaper slid further to the edgy left. Now it is hopelessly, quite unabashedly,  probably irretrievably, a “news” vehicle shilling for Dems, and viewed by many as such.  In this respect it is indistinguishable from, say, The Nation magazine, or The New York Times. Yes, that far to the left.  No kidding.

To do battle with its loathed enemy, the Bush administration, the newspaper’s editorial wrecking crew goes to work daily, hacking tediously at all things Republican or, worse, conservative. Now it plumbs the depths of tacky plagiarism in its quest to put down and, yes, to vilify those darn conservatives. 

Exposed by a reader of Power Line, the hip local blog that first unveiled Rather’s and Mapes’ bogus document trick, the plagiarism is as plain as that proboscis on your face. And inexcusable.

On Nov. 6, firebrand New Yorker columnist Hendrik Herzberg thrashes the Bush Administration in a piece full of bluster, titled “Hearts and Brains.” His tirade lambastes GOPers as vile, bloody incompetent, which, I suppose, fits with the mind-set of his liberal class in which uppity presumptions are “facts.” (See also, Dowd and Krugman.)

Power Line’s Scott Johnson, who believes the Star Tribune to be the worst of all major newspapers in the land, posts this at his blogsite:

. . . the Star Tribune editorial page displays the kind of intellectual fraudulence associated with plagiarism. Star Tribune wants so badly to be seen wielding the big stick of its elite exemplars in the mainstream media that it rips off the work of the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg.

Proof of the plagiarism is indisputable:

– Hertzberg in the New Yorker with a straight face slashes the administration for ". . . the subcontracting of environmental, energy, labor and healthcare policymaking to corporate interests."

– Four days later, the Star Tribune’s lead editorial rips the administration for ". . . the subcontracting of environmental, energy, labor and health-care policy making to corporate interests."

Whew! Word for word. Think how long it would take a couple billion chimps banging randomly at  keyboards to come up with identical phrases. Forever?

Give that smug thief, that juvenile “Strib” editorial writer,  an “F.” Wait!  More plagiarism awaits us, without a quotation mark, citation or attribution:

– Hertzberg in the New Yorker asserts the administration has engaged in ". . . repeated efforts to suppress scientific truths."

– The Star Tribune’s editorial recycles this liberal hypothesis, calling it ". . . the suppression of scientific truth." (The newspaper neglects to add Herzberg’s “repeated efforts.” Tsk! Tsk!)

– Hertzberg claims Bush policies have "spurred inequality, replenished the ranks of the poor and uninsured, and exacerbated the insecurities of the middle class."

– The Star Tribune juggles his text, saying administration policies “. . . exacerbate inequality, heighten middle class anxiety and expand the ranks of the poor and uninsured."

The copy-cat newspaper fails to steal — er, to lift — Hertzberg’s Pelosi-like claim that the administration record is “appalling, beyond serious dispute.” Oh? Presumptions parade as incontestable truths in the media elite, a practice brought now to an art form, aided by sheer repetition, a new batch of liberal shibboleths in the making?

Logic? Evidence? Facts? Ethics? Who needs ’em when you plagiarize from elite MSM in lockstep ideologically with your own inarguable, hard-left bias, often called "core belief."

The Star Tribune’s editorial offers up one liberal conjecture after another, all lined up, ready for adoption by true believers. Easy. Just declare your “core beliefs” to be undeniable — i.e., “beyond serious dispute.” Call this the very definition of hubris.

Just for fun, here’s a snippet of the newspaper’s latest Bush-bashing editorial, including the copy stolen from Hertzberg (in bold face) with my “[sics]” added, as a stop-and-think-about-the-sweeping claim’s legitimacy:

The damage is extensive. Start with the war and the loss of U.S. credibility worldwide [sic]; the torture [sic, assumed, as at Gitmo], the domestic spying [sic!, dig that partisan description], the corporate profiteering [sic], and the subcontracting [sic] of environmental, energy, labor and health-care policymaking to corporate interests [sic, and sic those darn capitalists!]. Then there's the mounting deficit [sic; in fact, it‘s declining], the Katrina aftermath [only Federal, please, not state or local], the constant suppression of scientific truth [sic, as assumed], and the economic policies that exacerbate inequality [sic, with lower taxes?], heighten middle-class anxiety [sic, a low jobless rate] and expand [sic] the ranks of the poor and uninsured.

The “[sics]” have it. Disputable all. Shhh. Don’t tell raving liberal Hertzberg, or his uncritical Midwest echo chamber, the Star Tribune.  Nope. They’d prefer to bash Bush with their “irrefutable” claims, not to stir mature debate with valid, factual points, all the while trying to incite enmity among their Democratic co-horts for the President and his administration. All in a day’s work for a Party Organ? Indisputably.

Culture: Media

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