[mcg1969]

What you are describing would be, at worst, fraud on the part of the Boston Globe, not the professor himself. Again, he did not misrepresent himself or his methods. If the Boston Globe fails to reveal the full extent of his methods, that MIGHT be fraud. But after Rathergate you know there's no way they would be that stupid, especially since his entire methodology is out there on the Internet for all to see.

Having said this, there is some evidence that he's been modifying his document in response to this controversy to cover his ass even more. It could very well be that, 2 days ago before this story broke, he WASN'T totally truthful about his methods. If that proves true, then I will agree with you that he was committing academic fraud.

[Dan(9698)]

...If that proves true, then I will agree with you that he was committing academic fraud.

He would not have taken on the project if he did not intend that it be used in a story.

How about conspiracy to commit fraud?

Two or more intending to deceive?

[Pres Raygun]

You may be right about him not technically committing academic fraud, but his confident conclusions do not follow in the least from his flimsy analysis, to the point of bordering on fraud. For instance he dismisses the claims of those who have produced replicas of the Burkett documents using MS Word as not credible, without ever explaining why he comes to that conclusion except for an incomphrensible hand waving argument in his third paragraph on page 8. He claims to be objective and an expert, but never even attempts to repeat this exercise, one which can be done by anyone in less than 15 minutes. If this is not intentional fraud it is either extreme bias or extreme incompetence, all of which could justify termination of employment, academic freedom aside.