Posted on 04/27/2005 11:05:25 AM PDT by finnman69
Bolton Accuser a Serial Plagiarizer
Yesterday we noted a post at Daily Kos from John Bolton accuser Melody Townsel, in which she admitted committing plagiarism while working at the Abilene Christian University student newspaper, the Optimist.
The ACU Optimist has a report on this today, with the revelation that Townsel was also involved in another plagiarism incident at the University of Texas at Arlington: Former student acknowledges past plagiarism.
Townsel left ACU soon after being removed from the Optimist to continue her undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she worked for the student newspaper, the Shorthorn. Marler said he received a call from UT-Arlington several months after Townsel left ACU regarding another situation of plagiarism with Townsel.
John Dycus, former adviser of the Shorthorn, recalled the event.
"I remember Melody as being very bright," said Dycus, adviser of the UT-Arlington Shorthorn when Townsel worked for the paper. "I remember thinking she didn't have to do this. She was bright enough; her mechanics were good enough; her research skills were good enough. This wasn't necessary."
UPDATE at 4/27/05 8:58:11 am:
In the post at Daily Kos, Melody Townsel wrote:
Months later, while working for another college newspaper, I wrote a review for a local play that tracked closely in format to another writer's review - and, although it was not plagiarized, it made my editors, who had become aware of my recent past, very uncomfortable, and we mutually agreed that I would no longer submit stories to them.
But that isn't how the paper's former editor in chief remembers it: Ex-editor key to Bolton debate. (Hat tip: Ward Cleaver.)
Theo Carracino, who had been editor in chief of the paper that previous semester, said he had read several news stories in other publications on the issue, and when he read a few of the first paragraphs of Townsel's story, many of the paragraphs seemed familiar to him.
"I knew I'd read them and read them recently'" Carracino said.
With his interest piqued, Carracino said he researched back issues of Time and Newsweek magazines, which had run stories regarding the famine.
He compared Townsel's story to an article titled "An African Nightmare" published in Newsweek on Nov. 26, 1984, and found many similarities.
About 80 percent of Townsel's story was plagiarized, Carracino said.
"I had to overcome my disbelief" he said.
The realization that The Shorthorn had a case of plagiarism to deal with quickly became apparent, he said.
"This was major plagiarism" he said. "Not the case of copying some sentences."
Do you mean Ward Churchill or Wilt Chamberlain?
"The Rats aren't going to have much choice but to drop their tactics against Bolton unless they want to look like the idiots they are by calling an obviously discredited witness or complainant"
I know you are joking;) It has never stopped them before!
I don't know if you have seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, but I have never seen a more anti-UN movie. I'm sure that was NOT the director's intent. I'm sure he wanted the UN to look heroic, with Nick Nolte and all, but they end up looking like worthless idiots. At one point Nolte shoots his gun into the ground to "scare" the Hutu thugs, because they aren't allowed to shoot anyone. I kept thinking that if the US was there, the massacre of those million people would never have happened.
I thought it was not only very biased, but actually very pro-UN. The central thesis of the movie was that the REALLY bad guys were the US and Europe for not giving poor Nick Nolte and the UN more troops. The movie even managed to blame Belgium for the fact that the tribes were hacking each other to pieces -- Belgium who had not been around for 30 years when it happened. Never mind that these tribal divisions had been fighting for 500 years.
Along those lines I would observe that the media which has been jumping on every allegation made about Bolton by anyone that every knew him and spraying it on their front page has yet to run a story on the serial plagiarism of one of his main accusers.
Hey Carol, where can I get some furniture... cheap?
Trajan88
At first I thought it was an article about Biden.
Sounds like she wasn't honest with her "new" editors" about why she left ACU, doesn't it?
When this story first broke, there WERE a lot of pictures of her, but they all seem to have disappeared in the last week to ten days.
Yeah, I Google searched for pics of her today. Nada. Nuttin'. ZIP!
The emotional problems of the double-plagiarist looks rather mild compared to this one.
Just where do the Dems dredge up these Swamp Things?
(....I think I just answered my own question).
Leni
This could get intereesting.
DailyKOS is a ridiculous blog. It is so biased on the Townsel matter as to render its credibility a complete joke.
What is it about liberalism and plagiarism? Kennedy, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bellesile, Biden, ad nauseum.
Savage and Rush are right: Lieberalism is a disease.
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