NYT Plagiarizes YDN? And other wishful thinking.
The weirdest thing about the most high-profile plagiarism scandal of the year is that copycat White House staffer Timothy Goeglein chose the Dartmouth Review to knock off. Dartmouth? sniffed incredulous student writers at the holy elitist trinity of HYP. If the White House is stealing from Dartmouth, surely somebody more important is stealing from us!
And since everyone knows the only American institution more revered than the White House is the New York Times, a tipster has connected the dots between NYT and the Yale Daily News. Specifically, NYT's article on "drunkorexia" (helpfully placed in the Fashion & Style section, lest we believe this is actually a disease or serious addictive problem) and a recent YDN article on sexually transmitted diseases. Besides the fact that long nights of drunk puking often lead to STDs, our tipster points us to the "lede/nutgraf similarities."
Now, we can never truly know who copied what, for what reasons, and how many chakras it will take to exorcise the plagiaristic demons. But you can judge the YDN-NYT "similarities" for yourelf after the jump.
New York Times, "Starving Themselves, Cocktail in Hand":
MANOREXIA. Orthorexia. Diabulimia. Binge Eating Disorder.
All are dangerous variations on the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia, and have become buzzwords that are popping up on Web sites and blogs, on television and in newspaper articles. As celebrity magazines chronicle the glamorous and the suffering, therapists and a growing number of researchers are trying to treat and understand the conditions.
Now check out the less glamorously (and more obviously) titled "Studies: Sex Linked to Health" from the Yale Daily News:
Chlamydia. Gonorrhea. HIV. Teen pregnancy.
These are common buzzwords in discussions of sex, during which education programs and the media tend to focus on its darker side. Other sources take the opposite tack, touting sex as a miracle panacea, with Top 10 lists and headlines like "Not Just Good, but Good for You" and "Is Sex Necessary?"
I am of the opinion that this is not plagiarism. It's just shitty writing. But there's no need to feel ashamed of your over-punctuated ledes, YDN, nor your reliance on "buzzwords" and overgeneralization. The Gray Lady does it, too.
And that, dear readers, is why the written word is dead. Drunkorexia is the new intellectualism! Chlamydia is the new Ivy League degree.
9 Comments | 
| 
Print This Post
Read more: plagiarism, Yale Daily News
Email – 
Search
About
Follow us on Twitter
Report a bug
Archives
RSS Feed
March 4th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
It’s clearly not plagiarism. You obviously agree, though, so why post? Not plagiarism is not news.
March 4th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
the Times capitalized “MANOREXIA,” so obviously that’s not cribbing from the YDN’s “Chlamydia.”
March 4th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
wow, jealous much?
March 5th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Manorexia was the title of a Scene Cover for the YDN earlier this year.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:14 am
or these ledes
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/technology/16toshiba.html?ex=1204002000&en=39f13655785a2186&ei=5070&emc=eta1
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/23212
March 5th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Imagine my surprise (and presumably Bill Connolly’s) at your defibrillation of our long-stagnant book sales.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Those aren’t even close to the same — they used only vaguely similar metaphors, and worded them in vastly different ways.
You’re coming across as pretty desperate to find something to implicate the NYT, but so far it’s just not there.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
“holy trinity?” please, those 3 are just a bunch of nerds. at least at Dartmouth kids know how to hang out and get their work done.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
this website sucks