Coulter Plagiarism Goes Mainstream, But a Brother Can't Catch a Break:
With the New York Post article on Ann Coulter's plagiarism, Ann Coulter's cuttin' and pastin' ways have made it onto MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and other more journalistically-inclined places like Talking Points Memo's Muckraker. It's gotten to the point where Coulter's column-distributing syndicate is looking into it.
And the Rude Pundit's fuckin' thrilled that John Barrie, whose software unearthed more plagiarism than the Rude Pundit did, is gettin' mad props (although the poor New York Post intern who had to scan every page of Coulter's book into a digital document certainly deserves some credit). Let's keep this in mind, as Barrie said on Countdown: the Post asked for this to be done. Barrie didn't do it on his own. This was a New York Post investigation of Coulter's plagiarism. It's an important distinction.
At the end of the day, the Rude Pundit ain't John Aravosis of Americablog, and Coulter's plagiarism is not as important as man-whore Jeff Gannon's open access to the White House or the revelation that one could buy someone's cell phone records, things Aravosis uncovered. And the Rude Pundit's aware that the mainstream media outlets don't wanna give blogs any more credit than they absolutely have to because they're such pussies about blogs instead of welcoming them as sources for information.
Still, the Rude Pundit did break this story about plagiarism in Godless weeks ago and in a Coulter column a year ago, with examples that get cited constantly by others. Philip Recchia of the Post did a lot of the heavy lifting, but it was the wide mention, at Gawker and Huffington Post, as well as at MSNBC's The Scoop, of the Rude Pundit's June 9 post that really got the ball rolling on this story, along with the follow-up work by Raw Story. So, how about a nod over to Left Blogsylvania, Olbermann or Editor and Publisher?
The ultimate goal is a universal, objective good, no matter how it happens: bringing down Coulter. But if something gives more people a reason to join in the rude party here, then the Rude Pundit wants as many invitations out there as possible.
