THE BLOG

The Problem With Political Speeches Isn't Plagiarism, It's Platitudes

     *
--
--
   the road" and you've won political cliché bingo.

   As for plagiarism, how many different ways can you express those basic
   concepts in simple, accessible language to describe another person? Not
   many. It begins with "he/she believes..." and ends in simple
--
--
   Ms. Obama. Trump just had a lousy proofreader who failed to spot the
   direct similarities. If the nouns had been replaced by synonyms, verbs
   exchanged, the sequence of clauses varied... who would cry plagiarism?
   Nobody. But it would still be a fairly unremarkable set of platitudes.
   Shouldn't we care more about that? It's rather disappointing to see the
--
--
   Nobody. But it would still be a fairly unremarkable set of platitudes.
   Shouldn't we care more about that? It's rather disappointing to see the
   news media pounce on the plagiarism as opposed to criticising the fact
   Melania Trump avoided saying anything interesting about the man who
   would be king.
--
--
   Trump handles that issue, unlike the speeches, will be interesting to
   watch.
   MORE:Melania TrumpDonald TrumpplagiarismRepublican convention

SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW POLITICS