Wednesday, May 26, 2021

How serious can plagiarism be? We just elected a President with an extensive history of it!

 




Opinion: Bob Caslen is more than his worst mistake

 

Opinion by Kathleen Parker Columnist May 14, 2021 at 6:49 p.m. EDT

 

It’s well-known by now that Bob Caslen, the suddenly former president of the University of South Carolina, resigned this week following a commencement address that he, well, flubbed pretty badly.

 

He welcomed the graduates as the new alumni of the “University of California.” Ouch.

More important, he plagiarized.

 

FULL ARTICLE BELOW

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How serious can plagiarism be? We just elected a President with an extensive history of it. LTG Caslen was just following the example of his Commander-in-Chief.

Syracuse University Law School had Joe repeat his whole first-year after initially flunking him out for copying at least five pages from a published law review article.


In 2008, then-Sen. Biden copied an entire paragraph from a Time magazine story on then-newly elected President Lee Myung-Bak of South Korea and used it for a speech, without attribution. Biden even had the stolen language read into an official congressional resolution in February 2008.


Biden's problem with copying the work of others is so widespread that in 2019 the Biden campaign released a climate plan using exactly the same language as outside left-wing groups, without attribution and that barely made news.

Maureen Dowd reported Biden's most egregious offense of plagiarism that happened during a debate at the Iowa State Fair on 23 August 1987 this way: "Biden had been lifting entire lines of his stock stump speech from Britain’s then-Labor Party leader, Neil Kinnock, who was campaigning for prime minister across the pond. He [Biden] lifted Mr. Kinnock's closing speech with phrases, gestures and lyrical Welsh syntax intact for his own closing speech. Biden didn’t just steal Kinnock’s political rhetoric, he appropriated his life story, including a coal mining grandfather. This was worse than it looked: Kinnock’s Welsh grandfather did work in the mines. Biden’s, although he lived in Pennsylvania coal country, sold cars."

When our Country's "Plagiarizer-in-Chief" is our President, how can we criticize others like LTG Caslen for just following his example?

Unlike my Commander-in-Chief, I will confess that I plagiarized most of this comment from various articles published in several sources, and without attribution.

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Opinion: Bob Caslen is more than his worst mistake

Opinion by Kathleen Parker Columnist May 14, 2021 at 6:49 p.m. EDT

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-caslen-south-carolina-commencement-resignation/2021/05/14/bc5ecc1e-b4d5-11eb-a980-a60af976ed44_story.html?commentID=52ea8abb-3f60-4b63-a549-0f5dc97d7e50

 

It’s well-known by now that Bob Caslen, the suddenly former president of the University of South Carolina, resigned this week following a commencement address that he, well, flubbed pretty badly.

 

He welcomed the graduates as the new alumni of the “University of California.” Ouch.

 

More important, he plagiarized.

 

When someone within stage-whispering distance reminded Caslen where he was, he quickly corrected himself, saying “Carolina,” but not “South Carolina.”

 

Then, with an embarrassed chuckle, he said to the audience of graduates, “I owe you push-ups.”

 

Caslen, you see, is a push-up kind of guy, a career military man who regularly invited students to join him at the gym, where he put himself — and those who showed up — through a grueling workout.

 

His plagiarism consisted of two paragraphs he borrowed without attribution from another commencement address by, of all people, retired Adm. William H. McRaven, possibly the best-known military man in the United States, who planned the takedown of Osama bin Laden. Caslen was deeply apologetic, saying he added the words at the last minute and “failed to cite” him.

 

It’s not the worst crime in the world — but it is certainly less than ideal if you happen to be the president of a university where academic rules apply. Among those rules: Do not crib from another’s work without credit.

 

Caslen’s resignation, after almost two years as president, was an unfortunate end to a job he probably never should have been offered — or accepted.

 

A retired U.S. Army general and former superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Caslen’s candidacy was met with protests by students who objected to his suggestion, in a stream-of-consciousness talk, that sexual assault and binge drinking go hand-in-hand. Caslen failed to put a period at the end of one sentence before beginning another, making it sound like he was blaming victims.

 

Caslen wasn’t a first choice for the University of South Carolina’s board of trustees, either. He was approved after a nudge from Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who is also a board member. That bit of pressure earned the school an inquiry from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

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