POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY MARGARET WENTE IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
Defends herself?
Is that what you call these less-than-honest words?
Words which add up to shabby hypocrisy?
Actually, this piece is interesting for what it reveals -
unintentionally, I'm sure - about Wente's methods.
Her past "journalism" - and, despite being an
opinion columnist, she has engaged with what would fall under that rubric -
follows exactly the same pattern as this limp, self-serving rubbish.
Again, just look to efforts like her "reportage"
on Vancouver's injection sites or the end of the Iraq War.
As far as her opinion columns, she has always taken the
thoughts of others - carefully selected others - and basically written
dust-jacket blurbs for their books or articles, without an ounce of original
thought.
Finally, John Stackhouse's leadership on this matter has
been about as poor and shabby as this Wente effort.
But Stackhouse is the man who has given us a new low level
in Globe editorials, so that is hardly a surprise.
When the nation's leading paper - and, yes, despite the efforts
of John Stackhouse, it remains that for now - appears to condone plagiarism,
what can anyone say about all those thousands of mediocre students who
regularly depend upon the nasty practice?
"I've noticed that right wing conservatives in the US
(as well as in Canada) attempt to vilify their political opponents instead of
engaging in meaningful debate. It appears that the same tactic is being used by
the left wingers posting here."
There are few things people hate more than blatant
hypocrisy, and here we have hypocrisy over plagiarism.
And all that is over and above her day-in-day out practice
of defending what cannot be defended and pretending at intervals to report on
things she has not investigated.
The woman has abused her privileged platform once too often.
