Goeglein story hits the Washington Post

The Tim Goeglein story has now hit the Washington Post.

Dan Froomkin writes in part in a story headlined "White House Plagiarist":

Timothy S. Goeglein, a top White House aide who is President Bush's chief liaison to religious groups, has admitted to plagiarizing a column he wrote for his hometown paper, the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel.

Goeglein is a special assistant to the president and deputy director of public liaison. He previously worked closely with Karl Rove and during the 2004 election was Bush's chief emissary to conservative political groups.

[ ... ]

"'It is true,' Tim Goeglein wrote to The Journal Gazette in an email. 'I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses.'

"He said he wrote to the author of the essay, Jeffrey Hart 'to apologize, and do so categorically and without exception.'

" Nancy Nall, a former News-Sentinel columnist who writes a blog from her home in Michigan, detailed the nearly word-for-word similarities of eight paragraphs of Goeglein's 16-paragraph essay about college education, which appeared in the News-Sentinel Thursday, and Hart's column, which was written about a decade ago.

"Kerry Hubartt, editor of the News-Sentinel, said his newspaper learned of the apparent plagiarism Friday when Nall wrote about it. He said the newspaper had removed Goeglein's column from its web site and that editors were checking Goeglein's past columns for any other examples of copying. . . .

[ ... ]

Nall wrote in her blog that reading the column in yesterday's paper by Goeglein, "a name jumped out at me -- 'Eugene Rosenstock-Hussey,' described as a 'notable professor of philosophy at professor of philosophy at Dartmouth.' . . . This name was so goofy, just for the hell of it, I Googled it. And look what I found."

What she found were long passages apparently taken almost word for word from a 1998 article in the Dartmouth Review by Hart.

Comments

[C. Edward Eckert]

Anyone notice that Tim Goeglein is an IU grad?

The only reason I find this interesting is because its getting to be a pattern at IU.

-They hire a known rule breaker-Sampson.
-Athletes getting in legal trouble all the time. Who knows about the regular students.
-An IU basketball recruit was arrested for selling drugs at a HS school.
-1/2 of a Graduate Dentistry class get caught cheating on a test.
-Summer of 2007, IU was reprimanded last year for student loan violations, and specifically mentioned on the Congressional floor as the WORST violator.

What ever happened to integrity? It is obviously not being encouraged at IU right now.

Something is amiss down there. And I'm afraid of what else they are turning out down there. I hope the Administration sees this as a cronic problem and takes actions to correct it.

[Jim Howard]

There are many acts of a man where integrity is brought into question. There is none quite so destructive as stealing the ideas of another and proferring them as your own without giving any credit to the author of those ideas. The integrity of the Op-Ed, the newspaper, and the WhiteHouse (whether they knew about it or not) is brought into question with the stroke of a pen. A piece that was written in 1998 in a Dartmouth Journal supposedly would not find the light of day in Fort Wayne unless Mr. Goeglein transposed the piece as his own. Unfortunately, for Mr. Goeglein (and fortunately for the rest of us) Google was created and this kind of petty thievery can be uncovered with greater ease. It is a sad commentary on our society when people are not highly offended by such actions. The pursuit of knowledge, it sources and the "truths" associated with it do matter. These are lynchpins that hold together the entire fabric of our society. This is not a political discussion---this goes well beyond that "level."

[Mark Grady]

It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that Ms. Nall could not have made this a private matter rather than a public spectacle.

[Craig Ladwig]

The "integrity" of the White House? The newspaper? Let's not get carried away here.

[Julie Robinson]

Is Mr. Eckert a Purdue grad?

Of course there have been IU students, coaches and alumni who have violated laws. With over 30,000 students and millions of graduates, it only stands to reason.

Please don't paint all of us with your broad brush. That is a CHRONIC error in thinking.

[Kristina Frazier-Henry]

I wondered how long it would be before the conspiracy theorists would jump out from the woodwork.

It IS what it is people.

Signed Kristina
(the IU and PU graduate - depending on which degree you're referring to)

[Sam Talarico]

Mark, I am genuinely curious. How would Nancy Nall have made this a private manner? If Nancy would have privately contacted the News Sentinel, the News Sentinel would still have been required to Publicly disclose the 20 plagiarized columns. Are you saying that Nancy should have called Tim privately and given him a lecture on plagiarism? I am just curious how you think the matter could have been handled privately. Mr. Goeglein made it a public matter when he voluntarily submitted his columns.

[C. Edward Eckert]

Not a Purdue grad. Just really concerned about the type of graduate IU is putting out into the working world. I already swear off IU educated dentists.

But something down there seems really off down there for this many integrity issues to surface in such a short period of time. If I were an IU grad, thank God I'm not, I would be very concerned about my degree being devalued.

[Kristina Frazier-Henry]

Mr. Eckert,

(psst) come closer.

I hope you don't think that higher education institutions are pure as the driven snow. IU, Purdue - any of them.

Believe me. I know what I speak of.

Kristina, who thinks that maybe IU should seek the services of someone like Pat Kingsley.