Just two weeks ago we had a little fun with Nation columnist and Columbia journalism professor Eric Alterman, who had, over the course of a year, recycled the same attack, practically word for word, into three separate columns for three different publications. For example, on January 15, writing in the Nation, Alterman wrote, "The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb chimed in by calling J Street "obsequious" to terrorists and "hostile" to Israel..." Then on October 6, in Le Monde, he wrote, "Michael Goldfarb of The Weekly Standard said it was obsequious to terrorists and hostile to Israel." And again on October 15, this time in the New York Times, Alterman wrote, "Michael Goldfarb of The Weekly Standard said it was obsequious to terrorists and hostile to Israel." You can see the side by side comparison here -- in each case the whole paragraph is recycled nearly word for word.
At the time I merely remarked that "Alterman is lazy." I didn't make a federal case out of it, but for a journalism professor, this kind of thing really does set a bad example, assuming that his students read his columns, which I doubt they do. But still, for a guy who was accused of being lazy...I feel like he kind of proves my point with his response, which comes in the form of an attack on my colleague Matthew Continetti's latest book, The Persecution of Sarah Palin (order your copy today!). Alterman concludes his column, which is just a series of personal attacks on me, Continetti, and a bunch of other American patriots, with this...
Is this new generation of conservative journalists really this sloppy and lazy? You betcha...
Yes, the 'I'm rubber, you're glue' defense...a lazy journalist would never fall back on that one.
Update: A reader emails:
If a student in Alterman's class submits an assignment that had been submitted previously in another course at Columbia, they could be in real trouble... [Note this is for college of which the journalism school is not technically a part of]
Academic dishonesty may be intentional or unintentional and most commonly includes but is not limited to:
Submitting work for one course that has already been used for another course
Nice work professor...
