Ms. Dowd Has Some 'Splainin' To Do.

What he said. Unless a bunch more cases pop up, she'll just keep mailing 'em in like she's been for quite some time.

 

If Josh wants to make a deal of this, I don't think the Times will be able to pretend that it didn't happen. Talking Points Memo is not some silly blog that can just be dismissed. It's a pretty big force in new media. It will be interesting to see if people like Howard Kurtz protect her by ignoring this.

I'm thinking suspension.

 

Dowd has apparently already answered for this, which is to her credit. Unfortunately, her answer, which is that she heard the paragraph stated by a friend orally without attribution, is ludicrous.
A wisecrack or a sentence, sure, that could happen. A whole paragraph? Ahh, no.

 

J School Blue:

My sentiments exactly: 10 years ago, Maureen Dowd was a "must read" every time she appeared in the paper.

Now, she is approaching the status of the "One Trick Pony". Too often, I can know the conclusion of the column she is writing by the end of the second paragraph.

Sic transit gloria mundi...

 

The link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/17/maureen-dowd-admits-inadv_n_204418.html

 

Yeah, if you follow the links to something called NYTPicker.com, it's apparently Dowd "explaining" what happened, as Michael says. The only credit I'd give her, though, is for expanding the plagiarist's canon of self-convicting explanations.

 

Actually, someone like Dowd has been a target for a lot of people for such a long time that it would not surprise me if that did NOT happen. If you're someone like her, Frank Rich, Friedman or Krugman, there is an army of people picking over almost every column you write, hoping to find a way to fuck you. If there are a ton of instances of her doing this, it would really surprise me if they hadn't already been unearthed.

 

good freaking lord

so that means not only did she recall the graph precisely as she heard it, but the person who recited it to her remembered it from reading it, precisely as he heard it

preposterous and pitiful

 

Suspension's just another word these days for a furlough.

Few in this business can afford a furlough more than Dowd.

Lesser, and less well-heeled, cheats than Dowd have lost their journalistic careers over this level of professional stealing.

 

And even if true, it's still representing someone else's words as your own.

 

Mike Barnacle comes to mind.

 

These are so rarely isolated incidents that I have trouble believing something like this is a first-time slip-up. And yet, this is absolutely correct. She's got a giant bulls-eye on her, so if this had happened before you'd really think she would've been shot for it by now.

Her past columns will no doubt be re-combed now that there's blood in the water, so I suppose we'll see.