Original author on Swiss Guard not too upset
On Thursday I posted a piece disclosing that large portions of an article on the Fox News website about the papal Swiss Guard had been lifted from a 2005 article in the Guardian by W. Thomas Smith, Jr. The Fox News author is Allison Barrie,
who is held out by Fox as a security expert as she apparently has a masters from King’s College in London and consults on security issues with the British Institute for Public Policy Research.
I reached out to Fox News to comment about the apparent plagiarism, but never received a response. I also sent a message to Mr. Smith. Smith is a columnist at the conservative Townhall.com, served in the Marines and has a strong background in journalism (bio). Smith responded and he isn’t too upset with the obvious plagiarism:
Years ago when someone first misappropriated my workand used it as their own, a friend told me that for
someone to do that is ‘the highest form of flattery.’ Of course, I don’t buy that.But I have far too many weightier issues — the war on terror, other national defense issues, the upcoming
elections, etc. — on which to focus: And there is far too much energy required from one who focuses on those
things, and too few hours in the day in which to get it all done.
So if someone else wants to go after a writer who might have lifted something from my work, fine.But it won’t be me.
For the most part I agree with that assessment. In the scheme of things, an article about the Pope’s security detail is not significant and plagiarism of ideas, or as here, actual words and phrases, happens all the time. So, it is not that I’m “going after a writer,” but pointing out that one shouldn’t assume that just because a big player in the mainstream media reports “facts” that we, as news consumers, should assume that it’s accurate or, for that matter, even original.
But, there is possibly something else at work, here. Would Mr. Smith be as nonchalant if it was not Fox News that stole his material, but, let’s say, The Nation or MSNBC’s Countdown? Lately, “moral outrage” has taken on a decidedly ideological tone. Mr. Smith has appeared on Fox News himself. Would it really be in his interest to voice discontent? Probably not. The questions that this little catch raises, though, is what else, if anything, has Miss Barrie, or Fox News, plagiarized? Was this actually her own work, or was her name just slapped on the byline by Fox to provide “security expert” gravitas?
The final irony is, of course, the major article in today’s New York Times which demonstrates in stark detail how the Pentagon gamed the public discourse before and during the Iraq war through so-called objective military analysts who appear with regular frequency on Fox, CNN and write influential blogs and columns:
Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.
. . .
Over time, the Pentagon recruited more than 75 retired officers, although some participated only briefly or sporadically. The largest contingent was affiliated with Fox News, followed by NBC and CNN, the other networks with 24-hour cable outlets. But analysts from CBS and ABC were included, too. Some recruits, though not on any network payroll, were influential in other ways — either because they were sought out by radio hosts, or because they often published op-ed articles or were quoted in magazines, Web sites and newspapers. At least nine of them have written op-ed articles for The Times.
Tags: Allison Barrie, Fox News, Iraq, Plagiarism
