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McCain and Wikipedia

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

The blog for Congressional Quarterly presented a post on August 11 suggesting similarities between certain phrases and historical facts that John McCain listed in his public statements related to the present Geogia-Russia conflict, with the blog questioning whether McCain, via his speechwriters, plagiarized portions of entries from the popular information site Wikipedia.

In the following, IPBiz asks "how many" ways can one express the concept:

one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion (Wikipedia)

vs.

one of the world's first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion (McCain)

IPBiz suggests one think about the analysis of CA9 when it discussed Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and weasels.

The "plagiarism" accusation against Obama involved more "inventive" material. [IPBiz still chuckles over "Meet the Press" and Russert having known plagiarist Doris Kearns Goodwin opine on the Obama plagiarism incident. See
Russert lapses on "Meet the Press" on 24 Feb 08. The copying of Goodwin and Laurence Tribe was far more significant than anything suggested of McCain.]

The reality is people do use Wikipedia. IPBiz has used (and cited) Wikipedia to point the way to other information. (eg, post on Hedy Lamarr and her patent, made on Aug. 11).

The McCain incident is trivial compared to what Joe Biden did, or what Glen Poshard did in his Ph.D. thesis.

See also More Reactions to the McCain-Wikipedia Story:

Joe Conason: "The discovery that John McCain's remarks on Georgia were derived from Wikipedia, to put it politely, is disturbing and even depressing"

See also
The "plagiarism" problem on the Obama "plagiarism":

Apparently, the Clinton campaign considers this an important charge -- at least, important enough that it isn't just being made by surrogates.

Full post as published by IPBiz on August 14, 2008 (boomark / email).