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Bolton Accuser a Serial Plagiarizer (There's more badnews about Melody Townsel)
little green footballs ^ | 4/27/05

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."

07:52 AM PDT | link: 135 comments | link only
last comment: rightasrain 10:41:29 am 4/27/05
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TOPICS: Breaking News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abilene; abilenechristian; bolton; campus; melodytownsel; plagiarism; townsel
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To: cake_crumb

Do you mean Ward Churchill or Wilt Chamberlain?


81 posted on 04/27/2005 3:09:12 PM PDT by JulieRNR21 (Call the Senators FREE using 1-877-762-8762)
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To: Palladin; MeekOneGOP; PhilDragoo; Happy2BMe; potlatch; ntnychik; Smartass; Czar; Travis McGee; ...


 BIMBO'S POPPING 

 UP EVERYWHERE 


82 posted on 04/27/2005 3:16:36 PM PDT by devolve (My WWII Tribute: http://pro.lookingat.us/WhiteCliffsOfDover.html - more traffic than DU-Koz-LDot -)
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To: finnman69
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.
83 posted on 04/27/2005 3:35:04 PM PDT by tobyhill (The war on terrorism is not for the weak!)
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To: tobyhill

"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!


84 posted on 04/27/2005 3:41:58 PM PDT by sodpoodle (sparrows are underrated)
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To: cake_crumb

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.


85 posted on 04/27/2005 3:47:21 PM PDT by boop (Testing the tagline feature!)
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To: boop

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.


86 posted on 04/27/2005 3:52:57 PM PDT by Da Mav
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To: sodpoodle

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.


87 posted on 04/27/2005 3:55:57 PM PDT by Da Mav
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To: massgopguy
Carol Mosley Braun = 1 term piece of garbage.

Hey Carol, where can I get some furniture... cheap?

Trajan88

88 posted on 04/27/2005 3:56:03 PM PDT by Trajan88 (www.bullittclub.com)
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To: finnman69
Bolton Accuser a Serial Plagiarizer

At first I thought it was an article about Biden.

89 posted on 04/27/2005 4:22:12 PM PDT by b4its2late (Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.)
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To: devolve
bump!


90 posted on 04/27/2005 4:46:47 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
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To: devolve
Hmmm. Didn't Senator Biden (D-DE) get caught plagiarizing some documents...once or twice!
91 posted on 04/27/2005 5:25:25 PM PDT by Smartass (Si vis pacem, para bellum - Por el dedo de Dios se escribió)
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To: Diddle E. Squat; Mo1
it made my editors, who had become aware of my recent past

Sounds like she wasn't honest with her "new" editors" about why she left ACU, doesn't it?

92 posted on 04/27/2005 5:37:49 PM PDT by Howlin (North Carolina, where beer kegs are registered and illegal aliens run free.)
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To: LibFreeOrDie

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.


93 posted on 04/27/2005 5:39:50 PM PDT by Howlin (North Carolina, where beer kegs are registered and illegal aliens run free.)
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To: MeekOneGOP; Happy2BMe; PhilDragoo; potlatch; ntnychik; Smartass; Czar; DoughtyOne; GeronL; ...

MOONBAT   AWARD   WINNER

        


MELODY    TOWNSEL

94 posted on 04/27/2005 5:51:07 PM PDT by devolve (My WWII Tribute: http://pro.lookingat.us/WhiteCliffsOfDover.html - more traffic than DU-Koz-LDot -)
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To: devolve; Howlin
Yeah, I Google searched for pics of her today. Nada. Nuttin'. ZIP!

95 posted on 04/27/2005 6:06:36 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
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To: finnman69
for the student newspaper, the Shorthorn.

On a lighter note ...

I attended Graduate School classes at The University of Texas at Arlington during the early 80s while working for General Dynamics (nearby Ft. Worth). I was kinda out of touch of the mainstream student body since I was an adult taking one or two computer science classes during the evening. During that time, I would once in a while glance at the student newspaper before classes started. I was there for about 6 months before I realized the name of the newspaper was "Short Horn" (A pun directed at the University of Texas Longhorns) rather than "Shor Thorn". I don't think I ever admitted this before. I'm so embarrassed.
96 posted on 04/27/2005 6:16:00 PM PDT by tang-soo (Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks - Read Daniel Chapter 9)
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To: finnman69
The other accuser (and Carter appointee to everything), Ms. Finney, is into Zen and "connecting with the universe." She was also sexually abused as a child, so she sez.

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

97 posted on 04/27/2005 6:30:10 PM PDT by MinuteGal ("The Marines keep coming. We are shooting, but the Marines won't stop !" (Fallujah Terrorists)
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To: Arrowhead1952; maica
Since graduating, she opened the Kinkos in Abilene where the Bush National Guard memos were faxed to See BS for dan blaTHer to use in his hit 60 minutes of BS last September.

This could get intereesting.

98 posted on 04/27/2005 6:36:22 PM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: finnman69

DailyKOS is a ridiculous blog. It is so biased on the Townsel matter as to render its credibility a complete joke.


99 posted on 04/27/2005 6:51:25 PM PDT by montag813
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To: finnman69

What is it about liberalism and plagiarism? Kennedy, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bellesile, Biden, ad nauseum.

Savage and Rush are right: Lieberalism is a disease.


100 posted on 04/27/2005 8:05:14 PM PDT by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
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