On the 40th Anniversary of Watergate the dirty tricks continue
by digby
I'll have more to say about this in a bit but for now, I'll just echo Paul Krugman:
OK, this is grotesque. Rick Perlstein has a new book, continuing his awesomely informative history of the rise of movement conservatism — and he’s facing completely spurious charges of plagiarism.
How do we know that they’re spurious? The people making the charges — almost all of whom have, surprise, movement conservative connections — aren’t pointing to any actual passages that, you know, were lifted from some other book. Instead, they’re claiming that Perlstein paraphrased what other people said. Um, what? Unless there’s a very close match, telling more or less the same story someone else has told before is perfectly ordinary — in fact, it would be distressing if history books didn’t correspond on some things.
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The thing to understand is that fake accusations of professional malpractice are a familiar tactic for these people. And this tactic should be punctured by the press, not given momentum with “opinions differ on shape of the planet” reporting.
He also points out that the same thing happened to him.
There are really only two things you need to know about this. First, Perlstein has properly attributed all of his research. It's highly detailed and extremely thorough. I've read the book. The charges are total bullshit.
And second, the man making the charge is publicist for the author of the following books:
High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton
Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right
Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)
Godless: The Church of Liberalism
If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans
Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America
Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America
Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama
Never Trust a Liberal Over 3
Yes, he is Ann Coulter's publicist.
I don't really think anyone needs to know more than that do you?
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