Dim Sen. John Walsh Plagiarized a Quarter of His Master's Thesis

[DigitalDrifter]

He's just learning from Joe Biden is all.

Sen. John Walsh, the Montana Democrat chosen to fill Ambassador Max Baucus' empty seat, plagiarized at least 25 percent of his master's thesis, according to an embarrassing report from Jonathan Martin at The New York Times. Walsh is up for re-election in November.

In 2007, Walsh wrote his senior thesis for the United States Army War College on American Middle East policy. According to Martin, Walsh lifted passages word-for-word from books, papers and other sources available online (several examples of the plagiarism are presented here). In about a third of the paper he included footnotes but presented identical or nearly identical passages as his own work. When asked if he'd plagiarized, Walsh said “I don’t believe I did, no.” But one Walsh aide said he'd been going through a rough patch at the time, following the suicide of one of his friends.

Walsh isn't the first elected official to be accused of plagiarism. Last year, BuzzFeed discovered that Sen. Rand Paul plagiarized passages from his book, Government Bullies, from conservative think tanks and online articles. The Washington Times also dropped him as a columnist because he'd plagiarized some of his columns for the site.

But this isn't just embarrassing — plagiarism also has a history of tanking politicians' ambitions. In 1988, Sen. Joe Biden's dropped out of the race for president after it was discovered that he's copied a British Labour Party member's speech. Paul wasn't up for re-election, and Walsh is trailing his Republican opponent in the polls ahead of November's election. This isn't going to help.

Democratic Sen. John Walsh Plagiarized a Quarter of His Master's Thesis - The Wire

 

[pismoe]

probably should say ALEDGED plagiarism . --- Plagiarism scandal overshadows Sen. John Walsh?s moment to shine - The Washington Post ---

 

[Stephanie]

that won't be problem to their base..they dont' care what their elected masters do

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Other than word-for-word incidents, plagiarism's tough to demonstrate since everything's been said before, especially in politics. In this case,

"...his appropriation of about a quarter of a 14-page dissertation on Middle East policy — the final paper required for his master’s degree — that did not credit the sources."

Not citing your sources isn't what comes to mind when people throw the plagiarism charge. Every paper is gonna be using other people's facts and figures. Short of being present and getting your information first-hand, you're always using someone else's accounts. You're supposed to credit your sources, but sometimes you forget. If you deliberately forget, and try to pass something off as original and your's, that's plagiarism. But until or unless it's proven he tried to pass whatever off as his own and original it wasn't plagiarism.

Throwing the charge absent evidence his intent was to perpetrate academic fraud, or being able to demonstrate his degree and subsequent benefit from it is why he got elected (like voters saying "well he has a Master's Degree so I voted for him") there's nothing conclusive to it.

If it turns out he did intend to commit fraud, while I'm not sure degrees can be taken back, if they can his should and any employment he received whole or in part because of the degree should sue him for repayment of compensation at whatever reduced scale his legitmately earned education would have qualified him for, if any.

 

[pismoe]

whoops , sorry for the repeat !!

 

[Political Junky]

The Right defended Rand Paul for plagiairzing.