Coulter commits plagiarism?

Naaaaah.

The story... No... the accusations... are summarized here. But it isn't plagiarism.

Basically, a liberal internet journal called The Raw Story says that in Ann Coulter's recent column delivering a well deserved slap at the National Endowment for the Arts, she lifted all sorts of passages from other conservative publications which have catalogued various NEA abuses over the years.

Simple to do. She could have googled the NEA, read through the most likely articles to come up, and done some cut and paste.

And that's probably what she did do. But there are a few problems.

1. The wording is not the same. The wording is similar, but not the same. She might have done cut and paste, but having reworded the material, it only amounts to failing to attribute sources.

2. She is accused of stealing various individual phrases and sentences, not paragraphs or extended passages.

3. She did not steal anybody's entire article.

4. She did not steal any unique or catchy turns of phrase. Rather, she only took samples of information from the other stories. Coulter is known best for her ability to fire off remarkably nasty barbs wrapped in splendid wit. None of that is what she is accused of having taken.

5. She is an opinion writer, not a reporter. She never claimed to be making new revelations, only summarizing information which had been made available to the public already. (I remember reading her original column and already being familiar with about half the stuff she mentioned myself.) An opinion columnist working with documented facts is not generally required to practice attribution like an academic writer. It is, indeed, rare to see a footnote among op/ed pieces.

Summary: cutting and pasting small items of old news, rewording them, and stringing them together using Coulter's uniquely acerbic style is not plagiarism.

Ann Coulter is getting smeared. If I know her, she probably feels complemented.