(In response to William Hamilton’s March 13 column, “Defining plagiarism.”)
Whether or not anyone considers what Matthew Whitaker, Ph.D., did to be plagiarism is actually less important than what it tells us about Whitaker, self-proclaimed scholar and historian.
He was tagged to deliver some remarks on immigration before a favorable audience, an opportunity to stir up an approving frenzy and satiate his own ego (both of which he accomplished). To do so he lifted the majority of his nine-minute address from two articles written and published by people not named Whitaker and during the process failed to give proper credit. According to William Hamilton, as published in The State Press on March 13, 2012, "[h]e defends his speech by saying [that] he cited sources afterward to people who asked," that "[h]e did not submit anything for publication," and that "[t]he nature of the setting allows for looser citation standards."
See what I did there? It's called full disclosure: I'm letting my audience know that I didn't just pull that out of nowhere, that I'm not attuned to the brainwaves of Whitaker, that I am, after all, a human being with limited resources who must occasionally rely on the work of others.
Unlike Whitaker, I’m a scholar with integrity and I let you know all of this up front. I didn't stand before cheering supporters and fire away from the pulpit with words and works borrowed surreptitiously from others, eliciting laughter and agreement when and where I wanted it. And I’m not afraid of disappointing my adoring fans with a preface detailing briefly the simple and legitimate route by which I obtained my information.
How much of Whitaker’s corpus has been borrowed under the cover of "looser citation standards?" More importantly, do the deficiencies in character suggested by this action align with the values of an institution of higher learning?
Whether he’s reprimanded or not, it seems hubris has cut another notch on its belt of victims. Because Whitaker, like many before him, fell vaingloriously when offered the opportunity to shine.
Jeff Weyant
English undergraduate
Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press email newsletter.
