A couple SoFla bloggers are apparently a little overwrought that a new Miami Herald columnist plagiarized a sentence in her very first column at the paper.According to Generation Miami and Carlos Miller, columnist Jackie Bueno Sousa lifted the line "I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone," from the movie Bull Durham and incorporated it into the column without attribution.
You can read all about their reasoning at their respective blogs, but, I'm sorry, I just can't get excited about this. Are we at the point where every "I like the smell of napalm in the morning," or "There's no place like home" has to be footnoted? I could be wrong but I sure don't think so. It's one lousy sentence.
That being said, Sousa does express some readily identifiable conservative points of view in the column, including one where she believes that "history will redeem" George W Bush. This revelation, of course, causes dittoheads like 26th Parallel to predictably nod their approval and gives me more reason not to take her seriously than some innocuous movie line quote.
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13 comments:
Hi Rick,
Thanks for posting.
I think Andy elaborates he doesn't think that line alone doesn't qualify as plagiarism:
"Yep. The Lee Harvey Oswald line is identical to the line from Bull Durham. A lot of people believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, so the line by itself doesn’t prove a lot. But when you put the lines in context, you see a different picture. The cadence of the two paragraphs is practically the same, and so is their general subjects—the mixture of politics and sports, the complaint about the erosion of certain values in sport. Sousa switches baseball for football–yeah, that’s clever. There is no doubt that Sousa’s beliefs, or at least in the style in which she sought to convey them, were “inspired” by Crash Davis. "
I think I also made clear that my issue was not necessarily the line from the movie but the line where she believes Bush will redeem himself, which is not a case of plagiarism but a case of denialism.
"Regardless of whether she purposely lifted the line from the movie, subconsciously lifted it after watching the movie the previous evening or came up with the line as she was trying to assure her readers that she is no conspiracy theorist, the fact that she believes that history will redeem one of the most unpopular presidents in the history of the United States makes her as credible as a young Cuban lawyer who once told a courtoom that 'history will absolve me.'"
It's 'way too early in the game to make conclusive judgments, but first rattle out of the box, the Miami Hurled's selection of writers to reflect a conservative point of view is shall we say uninspired. Did you see Glen Garvin's inaugural column? It's exactly what you'd expect from a clod who's spent the last quarter century staring at a teevee screen.
I have to guess that economics dictated their low-budget choice. Every writer has opinions; it takes brains and talent to derive and defend genuine judgments. That gets expensive. A competent essayist with academic and conservative credentials was off the table, so scraping the bottom, they offer up crumbs.
Yeah, it's early. Things could improve. But to quote Mike Royko, one of the best columnists ever, "I may be wrong...but I doubt it!"
Sousa probably believes the novels of Susan Sontag are overrated crap, so I'm surprised she didn't pick that line. But why quibble? There isn't an original thought on that paragraph or the column for that matter. I think she may be quoting verbatim from Hot Air.
Besides guys, it's a transparent marketing move. Obama is in, time to piss off the liberals. Controversy sells. Let's have a grumbling libertarian and Malkin-lite. It's entertainment, not quality newspapering. This is the Herald we are talking about.
It's certainly not just about the line--it's about putting the line in context. And when you do that you realize that the whole device she's using is not hers.
And what makes it more egregious is the fact that she's selling it as a statement of HER beliefs.
That's a very good point, Alex.
Wait, I'm confused. Are there two people from Generation Miami saying two different things about the same post?
It seems that Jackie Bueno Sousa got lazy on this column. She should've given a nod to the movie. But this is not plagiarism.
Just lazy writing.
No. Andy is a co-author of the blog and I stand by what he wrote.
There are much better quotes from Bull Durham. "I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan."
Too much fuss over one lousy sentence. I might be wrong on this one also and it certainly wouldn't be the first time - but seems like much ado about nothing. Oh crap, sorry Will Shakespeare. Just plagarized the name of your play...
There are much better quotes from Bull Durham. "I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan."
Too much fuss over one lousy sentence. I might be wrong on this one also and it certainly wouldn't be the first time - but seems like much ado about nothing. Oh crap, sorry Will Shakespeare. Just plagarized the name of your play...
Seriously, wasn't there some substantive point to trash?*
*all spelling attributed to a certain Bee
You guys really care that much about this crap? Wow...
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