Arkansas Legislature

Obama Congrats Resolution a Copy ‘n’ Paste Job

As an aside, I’ll note that the Arkansas House resolution to congratulate President Barack Obama that legislators voted down on Wednesday—Rep. Dan Greenberg explains more fully here—appears to mostly be a lazy copy and paste job sourced from two news articles (or possibly Wikipedia), with minimal changes.

Here’s the PDF version of the congratulatory resolution, as introduced by Rep. Stephanie Flowers. Paragraphs one through four of the resolution, along with the speech quote from paragraph nine, can be found almost verbatim in this November 5, 2008 story from the Los Angeles Times (including the sloppy “nation founded by slave owners” language that caused the dissenting lawmakers so much heartburn).

The biographical background info on Obama appears to have come from this news story from ANI, whatever that is, which I tracked down on Yahoo! News, though some of the language in this story is also found on the Barack Obama Wikipedia page. (Actually, I think the info in the ANI story is copied from the Wikipedia page, but I don’t feel like going to all the trouble to sort it out. Any obsessive sleuthing types out there want to nail it down conclusively, have at it. What’s clear is that the House resolution is a lame copy stitched together from these sources).

Legislators, be forewarned: This is the type of stuff that would garner you a failing grade at any of our state’s fine colleges and universities.

(And since this post is all about crediting sources, I’ll note that I picked up on the LA Times piece from a comment in this post at RedState.org, and filled in the rest with my own research. And by “research,” I mean 2 minutes of looking around on Google. Yay, I’m a professional journalist now!)

UPDATE: Max Brantley at the Arkansas Times blog notes that the Arkansas Senate passed a “virtually identical” resolution on January 5. The Senate version is also plagiarized.

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10 thoughts on “Obama Congrats Resolution a Copy ‘n’ Paste Job

  • Wow, you must be worn out from all of that heavy-hitting journalism stuff.

    Reply
  • David Kinkade

    True enough, Brett, especially since, as we all know, I am the laziest blogger in the state of Arkansas. We may have to knock off a little early today.
    D.

    Reply
  • I
    don’t
    give
    a
    flying
    rats
    ass
    about this story anymore.

    Man, I feel better now.

    Reply
  • David Kinkade

    No, you’re wrong, Br549. This is the most important story since the Thomas Paine Day resolution. Uh, wait a minute….
    D.

    Reply
  • Cameron Bluff

    I guess things could be worse. We could still be writing about the ARGOCOGLOWARM.

    Speaking of the ARGOCOGLOWARM, there is a surprisingly interesting and informative story on the www, linked here:

    http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/38574742.html

    It looks like now that Al Gore has made his $100,000,000 through his own Carbon Credit Business, he would shut up and go away and spend it with his fat wife. But nooooo. Anyway, the linked story above discusses the Global Warming SCAM, its origins, how Al Gore managed to butt in and make his money, and a pretty informed warning regarding letting the tail wag the dog on this issue.

    By the way, Carbon Dioxide, according to this story, makes up about .41% of our atmosphere. That means Carbon Dioxide ruining our lives has about as much a chance as cooling down New York on a hot summer day by every kid in town leaving the front door open as dad shouts, “What in the heck are you trying to do, cool the whole neighborhood?”

    Reply
  • Copy & Paste? Maybe I should get into the bill writing biz! That sounds right up my ally.

    Reply
  • Only on the internet can some unknown columnist write an opinion piece that is more or less regurgitated Limbaugh and have it reported breathlessly on blogs as fact.

    The truth of the matter is global warming doesn’t care if you believe in it or not. I mean, who cares about the next generation and the next? They might be Democrats and so deserve a screwed up planet, right?

    Reply
  • David Kinkade

    Joe, where you been, man? Been wondering where you disappeared to. Welcome back.
    D.

    Reply
  • Fourche River Rex

    Ehhhh. If Biden can do it with speeches, why can’t Flowers do it with legislation? They haven’t done anything original in 50 years and they aren’t about to start.

    Reply
  • Hey, don’t diss the blog. It’s already more hard hitting than my hometown Paragould Daily Press. Nothing personal against the staff. We just have nothing really fit to print ever going on there. “JP member Jim Bob Billy Jack dissented in building a new animal control facility, saying…”

    Hard hitting stuff.

    Reply

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