Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Oops, She Did It Again!



Neo- fascist useful idiot Donald "Rump" Trump's choice for National Security Council communications director, Monica "Who The (Bleep) Did I Just Plagiarize" Crowley, has apparently been caught in another cut- and paste scandal.  This time it's "Dr." Crowley's "PhD" dissertation:
An examination of the dissertation and the sources it cites identified around more than a dozen sections of text that have been lifted, with little to no changes, from other scholarly works without proper attribution. In some instances, Crowley footnoted her source but did not identify with quotation marks the text she was copying directly. In other instances, she copied text or heavily paraphrased with no attribution at all. [snip]
By checking passages in the document against the sources Crowley cites, focusing on paragraphs that come before and after footnotes of key sources in her bibliography, we found numerous structural and syntactic similarities. She lifted passages from her footnoted texts, occasionally making slight wording changes but rarely using quotation marks. Sometimes she didn’t footnote at all. 
Parts of Crowley's dissertation appear to violate Columbia's definition of "Unintentional Plagiarism" for "failure to 'quote' or block quote author's exact words, even if documented" or "failure to paraphrase in your own words, even if documented." In other cases, her writing appears to violate types I and II of Columbia's definition of "Intentional Plagiarism," which are, respectively, "direct copy and paste" and "small modification by word switch," "without quotation or reference to the source."  (our emphasis)
Politico's piece contains side- by- side comparisons of Crowley's dissertation with plagiarized texts. As with the plagiarized segments of Crowley's 2012 opus dopus "What The (Bleep) Just Happened," it's clearly not coincidental word- shifting. What's also not coincidental is the lack of ethics that goes along with being a Republican hack or office holder these days, beginning at the top with Cheeto Benito. While Crowley's position is not subject to Senate confirmation, the passel of plutocrats, fraudsters, racists and dimbulbs whose nominations Republicans are eager to bum- rush through confirmation without thorough ethics vetting make clear what Paul Krugman forecast earlier this month:


(Photo: Serial plagiarist Monica Crowley, cut and pasted from another website -- again.)

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