THIEVING COLUMNISTS

Steven Taylor has discovered that Mona Charen has written stuff that looks suspiciously similar to material that has been in PoliBlog and OTB. I’ve noted similar occurences in other columns. And, while bloggers almost always actually link to the columns we’re borrowing from, the columnists almost never do that. This is clearly a last, desperate attempt by the professional commentariat to keep up with the blogosphere. Pretty soon, Rush Limbaugh is just going to read stuff from InstaPundit on the air. (Gordon Liddy already spends an hour reading the Washington Times to his audience, and most blogs are way better than the Washington Times.)

Update (1206): Insert [irony][/irony] tags as appropriate.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Bryan says:

    I think “most” is an overstatement.

  2. James Joyner says:

    Well, most of the ones on my blogroll, anyway. 🙂

  3. John says:

    Just because someone said something similar doesn’t mean that a) you own it b) they got it from you. People can actually get the same idea without reading the same source. And the examples that Steve gave aren’t exactly rocket science to figure out anyway. There isn’t any intellectual property rights being trounced on here.

  4. James Joyner says:

    John,

    I’m apparently failing at my attempts at irony.

  5. HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! Doctor Joyner, just the other day I used the word “irony”, and I used it in a sentence! Now you cut that silly mess out this instant and quit stealing my stuff!!

    (For what it’s worth–I caught your drift. Maybe if you put on big clown shoes or something…)

  6. DANEgerus says:

    I’ve already hear Michael Reagan do exactly that and tipped the blogger/columnist… unfortunately I don’t link the guy so it’s long gone…

  7. John says:

    Yea, a nice picture of bozo the clown would help the ASCII impared.