Plagiarism? No just a naive chap from across the Atlantic!
We all choose to spend our Sundays differently, but last Sunday I spent mine searching YouTube for new videos of Obama speeches. I was hoping to find one he had made on his economic policy the previous night, but what I found was a video entitled ‘Clinton vs. Obama: Speeches are more than Just Words‘. It had received very few views, but I could spare a couple of minutes, so I watched it. It wasn’t a head-to-head of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama though, it was a head-to-head of Clinton and a chap I’d never heard of called Deval Patrick, the Governor of Massachusetts. Undaunted, I continued my video search and discovered one entitled ‘Obama inspiring response to ‘Just Words’ Clinton critique‘. Thirty seconds in, I was struck by how similar Deval Patrick’s response was to Senator Obama’s.
I went to the social news aggregation site, Reddit, of which I’m a member, and posted an item asking whether this was evidence of plagiarism on Obama’s part, or just a coincidence. A discussion followed with some other members, including the suggestion that Patrick may have advised Obama how he had replied to his opponents when faced with the charge that words are cheap. I hadn’t thought of that possibility but it made sense, and I thought nothing more about it.
A few hours later Clinton’s campaign manager accused Obama of plagiarism, citing the very same speeches I had watched previously. As the blogs and newswires buzzed with this charge, I was left wondering whether I had inadvertently created a new stick to beat Barack with. I hope not, but the timing worried me and the popularity of Reddit makes it a very real possibility.
I searched for references to the charge which pre-dated my Reddit enquiry, but found none. Of course, it’s entirely possible that it wasn’t really my fault, simply a coincidence, but I regret it all the same. Forcing the Obama team to divert their attention from serious campaigning to explain that it wasn’t plaigerism was the last thing I wanted. So, I would like to apologise for being so naive and make it absolutely clear that Obama had not plagiarised part of his speech.
Should you happen across a reference to this false charge which pre-dates mine, it would salve my conscience to learn that this storm in a teacup wasn’t my fault after all. Otherwise, rest assured that I shall be more circumspect in the future.