Burns’ “Baseball,” includes errors such as film of a pitcher supposedly pitching in a World Series who did not play for either team. The blog, “So many mistakes in Ken Burns Baseball,” lists many more.
When PBS viewers complained about Burns’ choice of documented plagiarists Mike Barnicle and Doris Kearns Goodwin as narrators for his baseball sequel, “The Tenth Inning,” PBS ombudsman Michael Getler defended Burns’ choice: “We all, of course, make mistakes, and most of us, I think, believe in redemption and second chances.”
Boston writer Mark Leccese didn’t agree: “The ombudsman for PBS nonchalantly classifies plagiarism as a mistake most of us are ready to forgive. Not so fast…Plagiarizing is one of the most immoral things a journalist can do. It involves not only the theft of someone else’s work, but the deliberate deception of readers…I do object ‘loudly’ to the ombudsman for PBS brushing off plagiarism as a mistake we should stand ready to forgive and forget.”
https://www.aim.org/special-report/ken-burns-student-of-history-or-left-wing-gasbag/
Did you see that a Mike Barnicle protege at the Globe recently got lugged for plagiarism? Howie Carr wrote a column about it in the past week or so. (Can access via Howie Carr link at Drudge).
I have a big problem with these liberal elitists parading their "love of baseball" as a mark of the common touch. Throw George Will in there too!
Plagiarism doesn't bother me that much. All I care about is if the writing is entertaining. Apparently Boston University doesn't care either -- they didn't revoke MLK's doctorate after it came out that his thesis was plagiarism from top to bottom.
A new book about King has just come out and was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal last month. The reviewer says that the book shows that King was an even bigger plagiarist than we already knew!