United Liberty
World Net Daily author accused of plagiarism
Tue, 12/27/2011 - 2:07pm | posted by Jason Pye
Admittedly, I’ve never been a big fan of World Net Daily (WND), an ultra-conservative website run by Joseph Farah. The site has become one of the main hubs for Birthers, the conspiracy theorists that believe President Barack Obama isn’t a natural born citizen — either because they doubt the legitimacy of his birth certificate or because his father was not a U.S. Citizen. But recently, Loren Collins unearthed pretty solid proof that Jerome Corsi has been plagiarizing various sources in content he has posted at WND:
Several months back I illustrated how Brad O’Leary, in his WND-published book The Audacity of Deceit, heavily copied an article by another WorldNetDaily writer. Another blog noted last month where a column by WND head Joseph Farah bore a suspicious resemblance to a Wikipedia article.
But neither of those hold a candle to a December 19 WND article by Jerome Corsi, author of The Obama Nation and Where’s the Birth Certificate? The article is “Obama’s legacy of broken promises – in Kenya”. Not only is roughly half of Corsi’s article lifted from a 2008 British news story, but Corsi goes further, and repeatedly claims that the copied information and quotations were instead obtained by unnamed “WND researchers” in Kenya.
The British article in question is “Barack Obama’s broken promise to African village”, written by David Cohen and published in the London Evening Standard on July 25, 2008. Corsi even links to Cohen’s story in his article (proving that he personally read the article he copied, and the content was not just provided to him by an unscrupulous “source”), but credits it as the source of only three sentences of information.
You’ll need to read Loren’s post to see direct examples, but he did put together this handy PDF that cites the passages that are allegedly plagiarized. WND has tried and failed to pass itself off as a legitimate news source and a conservative alternative to the mainstream media, but this is disgraceful; even for a site that frequent runs stories on cockamamie conspiracy theories.
Here is the legend provided by Loren:
Yellow = word-for-word copying from the Evening Standard;
Orange = content taken from the AFP;
Pink = specific references to the work of ‘WND researchers’;
Blue = credited citations to the Evening Standard
Obama’s legacy of broken promises – in Kenya
Old tactic! If you can’t refust the facts attack the source.
Do you really think AKA Obama would have won the election if all the things he is hiding were made known?
Do you really think AKA Obama will be able to finish his first term if all the things he is hiding are made known?
Do you think Obama spent a fortune keeping his history secret because there wasn’t something to hide?
If Obama said, “I have nothing to hide, but I am hiding it”; would you believe him?
If you are not suspicious of a man who hides his history I have a bridge in the desert I want to sell you.
If you are unwilling to call for an investigation of a man who attempts to sell you a bridge in the desert I have some beach front property in Florida at the intersection of I-75 and Florida # 29 that I want you to buy.
If you place a down payment on a contract for the bridge in the desert and the beach front property in the swamp I would conclude that you voted for Obama.
Obama will be exposed –Don’t get caught on the wrong side of this issue
SEE: http://obamaballotchallenge.com/
“Old tactic! If you can’t refust the facts attack the source.”
Uh-huh. And I see, Sam, that you’ve opted instead for the old tactic of ‘If you can’t refute the facts, respond with a bunch of rambling on some unrelated subject.’
“I’ve never been a big fan of World Net Daily (WND), an ultra-conservative website run by Joseph Farah. The site has become one of the main hubs for Birthers, the conspiracy theorists that believe President Barack Obama isn’t a natural born citizen.”
This website has been a purveyor of the conspiracy theory that Ron Paul didn’t write his own newsletters, he doesn’t know who did, and only the editor would know, even though Ron Paul is in fact the editor. World Net Daily is a heck of a lot more reliable a source of information than this site.
Paul wrote those newsletters and he meant what he said when he wrote them. That’s the real Ron Paul, and you support him.
Seriously, Jason—glasses houses and stones. That’s all I’ll say. Glasses houses and stones.
This website has been a purveyor of the conspiracy theory that Ron Paul didn’t write his own newsletters, he doesn’t know who did, and only the editor would know, even though Ron Paul is in fact the editor.
That’s flat untrue. I don’t believe he wrote them, though he ultimately bears responsibility for them. We have not said that Paul doesn’t know who wrote them; in fact, we have said Paul should name the ghostwriter(s), which most of us believe to be Lew Rockwell.
World Net Daily is a heck of a lot more reliable a source of information than this site.
And yet, you keep coming here.
We get it. You don’t like Ron Paul. Why don’t you try and be something other than a one trick pony, mmmmkay?
Sissy Loren has no credibility..he posed as a conservative on free republic before being banned.
Isn’t this a lie…the same he’s accusing WND? What did Jesus say? The question is for for Loren because he’s a Marxist.
I don’t know what emotional response you’d like to get out of me, but I’m guessing it’s not to make me feel sad for you, ‘Anonymous.’
I mean, unless I’m mistaken, you’re roughly my *dad’s* age, and here you are throwing around juvenile insults like a ten-year-old. I’m a “sissy”? You should’ve outgrown that kind of insolence a half-century ago. I can only hope that you only display this kind of behavior online, and that this isn’t the example you set for your own kids and grandkids.
And if your reaction to this is to consider throwing more childish insults my way, let me preempt that with: grow up.
Plagiarism happens pretty much everywhere unfortunately and if this guy is in fact guilty then he may need to find some new writers who know to write and how to source their information. And, if he in fact wrote this himself then some schooling is appropriate as well as the punishment.
Plagiarism is very wrong but it seems that the left really has to dig deep into the eaglepass in order to prove wrongdoing against the right, really this has nothing to do with any issues.
Update (of sorts):
http://barackryphal.blogspot.com/2011/12/wnds-aaron-klein-cribs-from-cnn…
I still don’t understant why people plagiarise in such a stupid way. There are lots of software to check articles for plagiarism and still journalists and writers copy somebody’s works. The same thing happens again and again. Personally I think that such people should be sued and they have to pay huge fines.
I can’t believe that this certain Jerome Corsi would plagiarize and be caught. Knowing that WND (World Net Daily) is very conservative with the topics it discusses and such, how was Corsi able to get away this long from plagiarizing. I’ve never read any of the write-up he produced but there may be some other examples in his old posts. This is too blatant and good job to Loren Collins who caught it. custom-essay-writing.net
It is ridiculous that even the reputable names in the society have tried plagiarism tricks, then how can we expect that the young students can be scolded for copying their coursework? Anyway, free Turnitin can simplify the process of checking any written document against plagiarism, and catch hold of cheaters.
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