Arab News Plagarism

Reading through it, I found myself getting more and more suspicious. This reads remarkably like a transcript from NPR. I checked the byline: By Barbara Ferguson, Arab News Correspondent. Hmmm. Does she work for NPR too? Do NPR reporters work on the side? The name wasn't familiar, so I headed over to NPR's site and a search on Baghdad found a transcript of the story I heard. It was by Tom Gjelten. I nearly stopped there, since it looked like a transcript, not a straight news story. But I decided to check up on one quote from Barbie F. over at the Arab News:

"The American military has, in the last five years, realized that this an area that does require a lot more in the way of focus. We moved away from both the Marines and the Army having doctrines — which before 1998 that was essentially based on the way urban operations were conducted in World War II — to something considerably more advanced. There’s a much increased consciousness that this is an area that can pose considerable problems to the US military."

Anything like that in the NPR piece?

Lieutenant Colonel RUSSELL GLENN (Retired; US Army): We in fact--we being the American military--have, in the last five years, realized that this is an area that does require a lot more in the way of focus. We've moved from both the Marines and the Army having doctrine before 1998 that was essentially based on the way urban operations were conducted in World War II to something considerably more advanced. There's a much increased consciousness that this is an area that can pose considerable problems to the United States military.

Either Lt. Col. Glenn (ret.) is very consistent in his interviews or someone's borrowing. But that's a gray area. It seems reasonable to quote the answer to someone else's interview question. That's the way press conferences work, after all. Let's check the next paragraph...

Arab News:

That consciousness has come in part from recent war simulations, where US commanders are shown examples of what could happen in urban warfare. One recent and especially alarming study showed that if the "bad guys in Baghdad" have access to shoulder-fired missiles, as the Iraqis do, many American helicopters could be shot down.

NPR:

GJELTEN: That consciousness has come in part from recent war simulations, where US commanders get hints of what urban warfare might be like. One especially alarming study was just completed this month, a simulation called Project Lincolnia, directed by retired Marine Corp Colonel Gary Anderson, who's now at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. A key finding, if the bad guys in a city have access to shoulder-fired missiles, as the Iraqis do, lots of American helicopters could be shot down.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! We have plagarism. She pulls words from out of the correspondent's mouth, lightly edits them for print and sticks them in her story.

She edits the rest of the NPR story down for her final paragraphs. I wonder how often this kind of thing happens. After all how many folks listen to NPR and read the Arab News website with any frequency? Wonder how much Barbara makes per story?

I'm taking the liberty of "archiving" the text on my site, since things like this have a nasty habit of disappearing from the web.

Update:

I did a quick search for Barabara Ferguson on Arab news and ran into tons of hits. She's been writing for them for a long time. I tried to do a quick cross-reference against NPR stories, but I couldn't find other smoking guns in the 10 minutes I devoted to the effort. My work here is done, save a couple of emails to NPR. Should I also send something to Arab News?   

11:12:50 PM  comment []    

IronicTimes: More Results From Last Week's Iraqi Elections

7:03:28 PM  comment []    

No Terrorist Attack

Thanks to Christopher for the idea. This is my 15-minutes-while-on-the-phone-with-Word-art re-rendering of the NO IRAQ WAR poster I see all over the place.  

12:30:59 PM  comment []    

Dan Savage: Say "yes" to war on Iraq

These developments--a Republican administration recognizing that support for dictators in Third World countries is a losing proposition; a commitment to post-WWII-style nation-building in Iraq--are terrific news for people who care about human rights, freedom, and democracy. They also represent an enormous moral victory for the American left, which has long argued that our support for "friendly" dictators around the world was immoral. (Saddam used to be one of those "friendly" dictators.) After 9/11, the left argued that our support for brutal dictatorships in the Middle East helped create anti-American hatred. Apparently the Bush administration now agrees--so why isn't the American left claiming this victory?

Because claiming this victory means backing this war, and the American left refuses to back this or any war--which makes the left completely irrelevant in any conversation about the advisability or necessity of a particular war.

11:05:07 AM  comment []