Sunday, May 17, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Dowd Denies Friend Dictated Paragraph; "We Were Going Back And Forth," Dowd Says

Maureen Dowd has responded to our request for clarification on her earlier comment. We wanted to know whether her friend had dictated the paragraph to her for inclusion in her column -- a logical assumption given that it repeated, almost word for word, Marshall's Thursday post.

Here's Dowd's email response to the NYTPicker:

no, we were going back and forth discussing the topic of the column and he made this point and i thought it was a good one and wanted to weave it in;
i just didn't realize it was josh marshall's point, and we've now given him credit
my friend didn't want to be quoted; but of course i would have been happy to give credit to another writer, as i often do

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it would also be good to show the email you sent Dowd.

jrshipley said...

Pfffffffffft. A begging refrain in TA offices across the academy this time of year.

"I swear I didn't copy my essay off wikipedia. My friend must have just read wikipedia before we met for coffee to talk about our papers, and I must have subconsciously picked up the passage from him with exactly identical wording and punctuation."

LAME excuse. Sorry, you fail the course and are going to likely wind up on academic probation.

Unknown said...

You mean she "weav[ed] it in" word for word (save three), comma for comma? No points, MoDo. Try again.

Roberto said...

Is that Josh Marshall's exact wording?

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

Barth said...

This response is nonsense and she can't believe it will work. It is a verbatim lift. Her "friend" is either Josh or someone who memorizes his work. This is a coincidence that is beyond belief.