Coulter's book filled with "textbook plagiarism"

Ann Coulter may have engaged in plagiarism when writing her controversial new book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism."  Expert John Barrie said on three occasions Coulter's book had textbook plagiarism:

John Barrie, the creator of a leadingplagiarism-recognition system, claimed he found at least threeinstances of what he calls "textbook plagiarism" in the leggy blondpundit's "Godless: the Church of Liberalism" after he ran the book'stext through the company's digital iThenticate program.

Healso says he discovered verbatim lifts in Coulter's weekly column,which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers, including the FortLauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel and Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.

Barrie, CEO of iParadigms, told The Post that one 25-word passage fromthe "Godless" chapter titled "The Holiest Sacrament: Abortion" appearsto have been lifted nearly word for word from Planned Parenthoodliterature published at least 18 months before Coulter's 281-page bookwas released.

A separate, 24-word string from the chapter "TheCreation Myth" appeared about a year earlier in the San FranciscoChronicle with just one word change - "stacked" was changed to "piled."

Another 33-word passage that appears five pages into "Godless"allegedly comes from a 1999 article in the Portland (Maine) PressHerald.

Meanwhile, many of the 344 citations Coulter includesin "Godless" "are very misleading," said Barrie, who holds a Ph.D. fromthe University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized inpattern recognition.

"They're used purely to try and give thebook a higher level of credibility - as if it's an academic work. Buther sloppiness in failing to properly attribute many other passagesstrips it of nearly all its academic merits," he told The Post.

And as the media web site Editor and Publisher explains, Coulter may have plagiarized a few of her weekly columns last year:

"Her Aug. 3, 2005, column, 'Read My Lips: No NewLiberals,' about U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, includes sixpassages, ranging from 10 to 48 words each, that appeared 15 yearsearlier in the same order in an L.A. Times article, headlined 'LiberalsLeery as New Clues Surface on Souter's Views.' But nowhere in thatcolumn does she mention the L.A. Times or the story's writer, David G.Savage.

"Her June 29, 2005, column, 'Thou Shalt Not CommitReligion,' incorporates 10 facts on National Endowment for theArts-funded work that originally appeared in the same order in a 1991Heritage Foundation report, 'The National Endowment for the Arts:Misusing Taxpayers' Money.' But again, the Heritage Foundation isn'tcredited."

One of two things occurred here.  Either Coulter did engage in plagiarism, which was probably the case.  Or, quite possible, she was just regurgitating GOP talking points -- adding evidence to the fact that the conservative movement is running out of new ideas, and Ms. Coulter lacks originality.

From a personal standpoint, after going to a private high school where you were guilty before proving yourself innocent when it came to plagiarism, and after studying for a few years at one of the top social science schools in the country, most people would be suspended for what Ann Coulter did.
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Other blogs writing about this issue: Copeland Institute for Lower Learning, Media Orchard, Library of Babel, Free Democracy, Liberty Street, News Coma, Orthomom, Neoliberal Agenda, Cephasworld, Pam's House Blend, The Pennsylvania Progressive, Points of View, Americablog, Rising Hegemon, Stalin the Shark, The Rude Pundit, Shakespeare's Sister.