« Working ferals | Main | From the local Green Party newsletter »
February 10, 2006
When textual purity stands in for racism
Did Jayson Blair plagiarize? Oh, yes, he did. Did Ward Churchill plagiarize? Not yet known.
Are these the only allegations of plagiarism that circulate in our culture? By no means.
But—
But. Two more questions. Is Jayson Blair now the uberplagiarist of our culture, the one who springs to mind when the word "plagiarist" is uttered, and most definitely "plagiarizing journalist"? My answer, based on dozens of conversations, is "Absolutely." Second question: Would Ward Churchill have been investigated for plagiarism if he hadn't made offensive remarks about the workers in the World Trade Center? My speculation is "Probably not."
A test case is before us. Kos blogs a new plagiarizing journalist. This one's not at the renowned NYT, as Blair was, but at the reviled Washington Times, a notorious conservative drum-beater. So yes, there's a difference in the publications that they work for.
Still. Will the Washington Times case get anything approaching the airplay that Blair's did? My prediction is "No, absolutely not." Partly because of the unequal visibility of the two publications. Partly because of the politics of the two publications: the people who get most excited about textual transgressions tend (this is purely my non-empirical observation) toward social conservatism. So the Washington Times isn't a journalistic powerhouse to be brought down, and its liberal naysayers aren't likely to pursue the issue too relentlessly. But another factor is race. Jayson Blair was black, a black male plagiarist, and our culture's frames for discussing plagiarism are highly sexualized, working with terms such as "rape" and "violation." So the figure of the black male plagiarist is a powerful one, drawing on deep-seated racist fears. Jayson Blair will continue in his place as Public Plagiarist Number One for quite some time, I'm betting.
And a side bet: this journalist at the Washington Times will not be fired.
Posted by senioritis at February 10, 2006 05:53 PM