According to the Associated Press, Tim Goeglein has resigned after admitting to plagiarism (see earlier posts). From the report:
"The president was disappointed to learn of the matter and he was saddened for Tim and his family," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement.
She said Goeglein had accepted responsibility and "has apologized for not upholding the standards expected by the president."
The White House sought deal with the embarrassing situation quickly, the same day the plagiarism was reported by a blogger, Nancy Nall, a former News-Sentinel columnist.
"His behavior is not acceptable and we are disappointed in Tim's actions," said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. "He is offering no excuses and he agrees it was wrong."
The News-Sentinel said an internal investigation found that 20 of 38 of Goeglein's columns published in the past eight years contained portions copied from other sources without attribution. Goeglein has submitted unsolicited, or guest, columns to The News-Sentinel for more than 20 years and he has never been paid for them, the paper said.
The News-Sentinel has posted a listing of Goeglein's plagiarized columns as well as a column from editor Kerry Hubartt apologizing to their readers.
Wow. Not much surprises me anymore, but this one surprises me.
Posted by: Jeff Herr | February 29, 2008 at 08:47 PM
Did Senators Obama and Biden resign? I forget.
Ed. note:
Did Senator Kennedy resign after the death of Mary Jo Kopechne?
Posted by: Greg Harper | March 01, 2008 at 03:25 PM
I guess that the "anything to win" attitude at IU started earlier than we thought. You know - "we are better than everyone else, so we can do whatever we want". Seems that I remember Tim making a statement that "his people" don't encourage their children to pursue "artsy" careers (like serious music or other fine arts) because of some advantage that they have. Of course you have to be aware that I am a big fan of THE best university in Indiana at West Lafayette! John B. Kalb
Posted by: john b. kalb | March 01, 2008 at 04:17 PM
"Did Senators Obama and Biden resign? I forget."
"Did Senator Kennedy resign after the death of Mary Jo Kopechne?"
Well, I won't assume that these remarks are intended as a defense of the hapless White House Liason; and I won't assume that this is some sort of protest against the 'injustice' of Goeglein's resignation.
Leaving aside that Goeglein was not elected into his position in his own right (and that therefore, his resignation was really a termination), one notes that the (supposed) counter examples are Democrats, while Goeglein is a Republican....
and then, even if we grant every inference - wouldn't any self-respecting Republican hack RATHER see liars and plagiarists in their OWN party run out on a rail, rather than kept around, as a constant potential source of new embarrassments, and further absurdities?
And indeed - the Bush administration will end very soon in any case, and all the folks at Goeglein's level will certainly be replaced by the new administration. The day a person accepts a job at the White House, they know that they will only be there a short while (and shorter yet, if you actually bring disrepute upon the institution)
And finally - I find this whole Goeglein story more than a little bit offensive. Think about it. Why did this undeniably intelligent person think he could get away with this? Because "his" writing was only appearing in his hometown 30,000 subscriber afternoon newspaper....he could try and impress the rubes back home, and the smart folks out east would be none the wiser! Nancy Nall touched oin this point lightly in her show-stopping blog entry; but to me (provincial rube that I am!) it is the KEY point!
He thought he could get away with this 'back in Fort Wayne' - and he DID, for years. At bottom, the essence of plagiarism is contempt; contempt for the truth, and for the intended (and presumeably stupid) reader, and for the press.
In the 500 (and counting) responses to the original post at Nancy Nall's site, some of the defenders have taken to deriding the 'blood lust' and glee in the posts of some of the offended, and the irony is lost on most of the newcomers over there: Nancy didn't like "Goegein's" writing - his contributions always struck her as pompous and trite....but she read them nonetheless!! She read them to make fun of them, to be sure - but she STILL expended the effort to take him seriously and read the words that appeared beneath his byline. She took him seriously enough to follow up, and to read a bit more, based on what "his" columns said (Honestly, I think I have read only a column or two of "his", after Nancy pointed to them a month or two ago. Otherwise, I could never get past the headline and the first sentence or two).
Only then, after expending the effort to seek out and read 'his' work, and react to it by doing further reading, did she discover Goeglein's deception.
One wonders - if the News Sentinel still had Nancy Nall in their newsroom, how much sooner this would have been discovered
Posted by: brian stouder | March 02, 2008 at 12:26 AM
As Nancy Nall points out on her blog, the most amazing thing is that he was not working up against a deadline, he was not being paid, and these columns were 100% voluntary which make this situation so absurd. What was the point?. As brian points out above, it certainly seems like he was simply trying to wow the rubes back home in Indiana or prime us all for a congressional run at some point?
Posted by: Sam Talarico | March 03, 2008 at 09:42 AM
I don't know what to say about this confession of his. It's nice that he was truthful. But pardon me if I'm a little cynical about it all. I see this going the way of a tell-all book, penned by a ghost-writer (I guess...?).
One other thing (and here's my sweeping generalization of the moment) - if someone spent enough time doing the research, I'm sure we'd find a TON more items plagiarized - but not just by Tim - but by many others.
Seems like people are just too darned lazy to express their own ideas, backed with reason, logic, and maybe facts.
We've become such an ADHD society - everything is boiled down to bullet points. How sad is that?
Posted by: Kristina Frazier-Henry | March 04, 2008 at 01:11 AM
What a tragic story.
Posted by: Joshua Longbrake | March 04, 2008 at 10:14 AM
"We've become such an ADHD society - everything is boiled down to bullet points".
I like that....can I copy that? ;)
Posted by: Kevin Knuth | March 04, 2008 at 11:02 AM
Sure, Kevin - as long as you get it "Nalled" first.
Posted by: john b. kalb | March 04, 2008 at 05:04 PM