After Globe & Mail resident plagiarist Margaret Wente returned to work this week following a brief hiatus to lick her wounds after plagiarism allegations from blogger Media Culpa went viral, the National Post waded into the fray yet again, this time via Jonathan Kay. Kay provides a superb and scathing
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The Sixth Estate: Margaret Wente Returns, Issues Yet Another Apology for… “Careless Mistakes”
The Globe & Mail’s resident plagiarist and cheap-shot artist Margaret Wente has finally resurfaced after a mysterious two-week disappearance, with a typically vapid column on the U.S. election. Strangely, the Globe & Mail seems to be introducing an extra-special moderated comment format just for Wente. They also had her print
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Plagiarism Bad. Wenteism Okay. Plus, Yet More Fake-Feminist Silliness from Margaret Wente
It’s a day that ends with a Y and we still haven’t received a genuine and contrite apology, sans political cheap shots, from the Globe & Mail’s chief plagiarist Margaret Wente. (That’s not to be confused with the Globe’s chief cover-up artist, and chief self-promoter.) So it’s time to up the ante
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: More Sloppy Quoting Work from Margaret Wente — Plus, Bonus Fake-Feminist Rubbish
Recently a famous ethicist named Margaret Somerville, whom I will not link to because of the ongoing plagiarism link boycott, said that criticizing Wente’s plagiarism because we don’t like her politics is inappropriate. That, said the ethicist, would be “using ethics unethically.” We certainly wouldn’t want to do that, would
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: McGill Ethicist Margaret Somerville Sides With Margaret Wente in Plagiarism Scandal
The controversial McGill ethicist, well known for her stances on gay marriage and abortion, has come out in defence of Margaret Wente. You know, it was bad enough when experienced journalists like Terence Corcoran were defending plagiarism as freedom of the press. But she may be the first tenured academic
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Yes, Professional Columnists Can Get Away With Plagiarism
That should sound like a very straightforward and pedestrian proposition, given all I’ve had to say on the subject of Globe & Mail scribbler Margaret Wente’s plagiarizing ways over the last week or so. But apparently not so much. I know many readers are getting rather bored with my tedious
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Reading The Wentrails
As noted by this gentleman on facebook, Margaret Wente’s tri-weekly column has not appeared in a week. Was her punishment for this kind of thing a suspension?
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Waino On Wente: This Is Becoming Painful To Watch
The Plagiarer: The New York Times reports that a gentleman named Broadway (not his real name) thumbs tweets for rapper 50 Cent (not his real name), who has nearly a quarter of a million followers. “He doesn’t actually use Twitter,” Broadway says. “But the energy of it is all him.”The
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: How the Media Should Handle a Plagiarism Scandal
In recent days I’ve done what I can to show readers how horrendously the national media is coping with the news that one of its own, accomplished Globe & Mail columnist Margaret Wente, plagiarizes in her columns. It hasn’t been pretty. First, the Globe unsuccessfully tried to dismiss the accusations
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Globe & Mail: Margaret Wente Suffered an “Originality Breakdown”
The Margaret Wente plagiarism saga continues. On Friday, the Globe & Mail imported an American media export named Kelly McBride to offer yet another explanation for Wente’s sins: Professional journalism isn’t facing a plagiarism problem… Our originality breakdown results from many pressures — the overwhelming volume of writing incessantly pushed
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Considering plagiarism? Just forget it! Nowadays you’ll be busted for sure!
Peggy Wente gets ready to write her next column. Globe and Mail columnists may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below, the real Ms. Wente, looking like she’s in a mug shot after being busted for plagiarism; the late Ken Adachi. There has never been a shortage of plagiarism in Canadian
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Margaret Wente and the Sorry Song
I have to admit that I am enjoying every twist and turn in the Margaret Wente plagiarism scandal.Not because I really care whether she ripped off the words of others eh? For that snooty right-wing hack was NEVER original. And in her hands even the works of Shakespeare would read like monkey
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Social Media and Margaret Wente
About two years ago, I wrote a blog post explaining why we cancelled our subscription to The Globe and Mail. At the same time, I sent an email with a link to the post to Globe editor-in-chief John Stackhouse, suggesting that if he wanted to know why he had lost
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: CBC Disowns Wente
As those of you in our audience know, Margaret Wente has served as a regular face and voice on our Q media panel for the last three years. In that time she has brought interesting perspectives and arguments to the airwaves and played a role in the panel becoming a
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: ‘I Am Not A Crook’
In words eerily echoing Richard Nixon’s famous “I’m not a crook” declaration, Globe and Mail plagiarist Margaret Wente truculently writes the following in her still extant column: I’m far from perfect. I make mistakes. But I’m not a serial plagiarist. What I often am is a target for people who
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Tuesday Tidbits
As the Margaret Wente plagiarism story finally hits the mainstream, she discovers a lone defender…yeah, Ezra Levant, and for him it really all comes down to The Muslims. Ah well, as Ms. Wente herself once wrote: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” (PS.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: About Stephen Harper’s ambassadorial timeshare: maybe he missed the lesson on the Statute of Westminster!
Canadian and British Joint-Embassy diplomats work out their timeshare arrangements. Below: The young Stephen Harper on the day he missed his history lecture after lingering too long over Atlas Shrugged; Perfesser Dave feeds lines to Opposition leader Tom Mulcair last weekend; Mr. Harper at the NCC. Like Sir John A.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – The Economist adds a noteworthy voice to the chorus calling for greater tax enforcement to ensure the corporate elite pays its fair share: Characterising this steady financing as short-term lending is “the ultimate example of form over substance” and undermines a fundamental tenet
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Maybe Wente Should Just Go
Tell me that what Media Culpa illustrates here isn’t an example of what John Mashey refers to in the comments as “mosaic plagiarism”. MC concludes as follows: Like journalists, kids who plagiarize are sometimes excused if it’s deemed to be “an isolated incident”. But what if it’s a pattern? And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jim Stanford discusses how Canadian right-wing parties are picking up on the most extreme anti-labour stances of the U.S. Republicans. But I do have to wonder whether the comparison between union dues and taxes is one that they’d particularly shy away from:
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