Is this the new 'thrifty' Globe and Mail? Ian Hunter, The National Post, and kilts

Can’t find a link to it on The National Post’s website, but what appears to be a 2010 article by Ian Hunter (that appears here) contains large swaths virtually identical to one by the same author in the Globe and Mail today. 

Is that filler behind the pay wall?

National Post 2010:…no one can deny that the kilt is an impressive rig-out…a scenic contribution to social intercourse. On any occasion, however formal, the smartest dress remains the kilt.

Globe and Mail 2013:  No one could deny that the kilt is an impressive rig-out… a scenic contribution to social intercourse. On any occasion, however formal, the smartest dress remains the kilt.…

National Post 2010:  In recent years some Scottish kilt-for-hire companies have imposed a new restriction; specifically, customers are forbidden to (as it is said) “go regimental,” which means following the ancient custom of wearing nothing under the kilt. One kilt-maker has written a clause into their lease agreement requiring that underwear be kept on at all times. Another Edinburgh company requires that the kilt be dry-cleaned prior to its return. Even though all companies dry-clean kilts before they are rented out again, this was not enough; at this company employees objected to handling a returned kilt even for the limited purpose of sending it out to the cleaners.

This new campaign is being fought under the banner of “hygiene,” a favourite rallying call of the nanny state that Scotland has sadly become. One store manager said: “From a personal point of view, I certainly would wear underwear with a hire kilt for my own hygienic reasons and most hire companies do encourage it….”…

Globe and Mail 2013:  In recent years, some Scottish kilt-for-hire companies have taken to imposing restrictions – specifically, customers are forbidden to (as it’s said) “go regimental,” which means following the ancient custom of wearing nothing under the kilt. One kilt-maker has written a clause into the lease agreement requiring that underwear be worn at all times. Another Edinburgh company requires that the kilt be dry cleaned before its return. Even though kilt-rental companies already dry clean their kilts before renting them out again, this was not enough; at this company, some employees apparently objected to handling a returned kilt even for the limited purpose of sending it to the dry cleaners.

The campaign against “going regimental” is fought under the banner of “hygiene,” a favourite rallying cry of the nanny state. One store manager in Scotland said: “From a personal point of view, I certainly would wear underwear with a hire kilt for my own hygienic reasons, and most hire companies do encourage it.” …

National Post 2010:  The kilt originated as 16th-century battle dress. Made of worsted wool, it originally included a cloak draped over the shoulder, as well as the more familiar short (or “walking”) kilt. After the defeat of the Scots fighting for Bonnie Prince Charles at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and the subsequent pursuit and butchery of highlanders by the savage Duke of Cumberland, the wearing of tartan or kilt was considered a sign of Jacobite sympathy and outlawed. Only gradually, about three decades later, did the hairy knee slowly make its reappearance in the drawing rooms of polite Scottish society.

The tradition of wearing nothing beneath the kilt is also an ancient and honourable one, just the kind that modernists detest. In the First World War, regimental inspections of the Black Watch included walking over a mirror to ensure against cheating; an officer then found with underwear was fined a bottle of port.

Globe and Mail 2013:  The kilt originated as 16th-century battledress. Made of worsted wool, it originally included a cloak draped over the shoulder, as well as the more familiar short (or “walking”) kilt. After the defeat of the Scots fighting for Bonnie Prince Charles at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and the subsequent pursuit and butchery of Highlanders by a savage Englishman, the Duke of Cumberland, the wearing of tartan or kilt was considered to be a sign of Jacobite sympathy, and it was outlawed. Only gradually, about three decades later, did the hairy knee slowly make its reappearance in the drawing rooms of polite Scottish society.

The tradition of wearing nothing beneath the kilt is also an ancient and honourable one, just the kind that modernists despise. In the First World War, regimental inspections of the Black Watch included walking over a mirror to ensure against cheating; an officer found wearing underwear was fined one bottle of port.

National Post 2010: The tale is told that as one highland regiment marched into a Scottish village, a woman watching from the sidelines turned to her neighbour and inquired: “Tell me, is there anything worn under the kilt?” To which one marching soldier called out: “Nay, lassie, dinna fret — it’s all in good workin’ order”

Globe and Mail 2013:  The tale is told… that, as one Highland regiment marched into a Scottish village, a woman watching from the sidelines turned to her neighbour and sweetly asked: “Tell me, is there anything worn under the kilt?” To which a marching soldier, on overhearing her, called out: “Nay, lassie, dinna fret – it’s all in good workin’ order.”

The Globe’s Correction about Infection

The Globe and Mail’s André Picard has had to climb down from his claim that singer Rita MacNeil died from an infection contracted in hospital. 

“As strong as Ms. MacNeil was, she couldn’t survive routine, minor surgery in a Canadian hospital. That realization should give us all a sickening feeling in the pit of our stomachs,” he had written. 

“As strong as MacNeil was?”  The wonderful Cape Breton winger was strong in spirit, no doubt.  But a bit of an odd statement, given that Picard would be aware of the health problems related to obesity and has even previously suggested  “intervention” for children who are “sickeningly over-nourished and suffering from the life-threatening health problems that are caused by extreme obesity”.

Here are the appended notes at the top and bottom of the column:

Correction: Rita MacNeil was admitted to hospital for abdominal surgery. Among other things, she suffered an infection before her death. She did not acquire the infection in the hospital, according to senior medical officials of the Cape Breton District Health Authority. A Friday news column incorrectly said she contracted an infection in hospital after surgery.

ADDENDUM: An earlier version of this column stated cited singer Rita MacNeil as an example of the many Canadians who die from hospital-acquired infections. That was incorrect. Her death was not caused by a hospital-acquired infection.

Update:  To his credit, Picard quickly tweeted the correction.  Kudos for that.

What Margaret Wente ‘teaches’ us about plagiarism

A Margaret Wente column often opens with an anecdote about a ‘friend’ like “Ben” or “Jim”, or maybe something about her hubby.  Sometimes it seems like a formula that sets the reader up to believe that what follows comes from her own insights and experience.   Often though, the body of the article seems to mirror other columns - frequently including quotes from the same experts.   At other times, the columns smell more strongly of plagiarism.

In another context, I was reading something by Mark Bauerlein, and remembered that Ms. Wente had mentioned him.  Google turned up a 2009 article that opens with recollections about her university glory days (when profs hung out with undergrads smoking dope and talking Blake).  But things have changed, and now elitist professors ‘sip sherry’, working just a few hours a week, and take “six months off each year to do as they please”. I checked out the column, and (again) found what seem to be attribution problems (others can decide whether the ‘p’ word applies).  Here’s the first problem – which looks like another mis-identified quote (emphasis mine throughout).

Wente:  Richard Vedder, a leading U.S. critic, has argued that the higher education system has pawned off the responsibility of educating students "in favour of pursuing a whole lot of self-interested research (which the majority of undergraduates are not involved in) that for the most part, doesn't matter."

Daniel L. Bennett, September 4, 2009:  Meanwhile, graduates will be unequipped to compete in the global economy due to a higher education system that pawned off the responsibility of educating them in favor of pursuing a whole lot of self-interested research (which the majority of undergraduates are not involved in) that for the most part, doesn't matter.

While the blog on which these words appeared is associated with Vedder, the article appears to be by Bennett.  (Note also the partial quotation marks - a common practice for Wente.) 

Then there’s this bit where Wente describes how humanities profs spend too much time on irrelevant research. 

Wente:  Take my old stomping ground, English Lit. When last I looked, nobody was clamouring for another book on Moby-Dick . Yet as demand goes down, supply goes up. Over the past five decades, the "productivity" of scholars in the fields of languages and literature has increased from approximately 13,000 publications to 72,000 a year. Who reads them? For the most part, hardly anyone. "The system has reached absurd proportions," writes Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University…

So Margaret, thinking back on her college days, ‘looked’ at recent research, noticed an excess of Moby Dick scholarship, and produced stats showing that as “demand goes down, supply goes up”?  

In her column, Mark Bauerlein is introduced in a supporting role at the end of the paragraph to discuss student retention and buttress what we assume are Wente’s words and ideas.

So here’s Mark Bauerlein in his own words:  “Demand goes down and supply goes up”, he wrote on page 11 of a paper called "Professors on the Production Line, Students on Their Own".  And what example did Bauerlein use for this observation?  Moby Dick. He asks how many critical readings of Melville’s classic are needed, later adding: “Nobody off-campus declared, “We don’t have enough books on Walt Whitman…”.  (These are the kinds of things a professor might expect a student to attribute).

And then there’s the almost identical sentence from Bauerlein’s article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (presumably the result of his own humanities 'research') that Wente neglects to enclose in quotes or otherwise attribute to him:

Bauerlein:  In a working paper I wrote recently for the American Enterprise Institute, "Professors on the Production Line, Students on Their Own, " I reported that over the past five decades, the "productivity" of scholars in the fields of languages and literature had increased hugely: from approximately 13,000 publications to 72,000 a year.

Wente:  Over the past five decades, the "productivity" of scholars in the fields of languages and literature has increased from approximately 13,000 publications to 72,000 a year.

After mentioning Vedder again, Wente wraps up with a punchy conclusion.  She says reform won’t happen until “students count for more than articles in unread quarterlies”.    By some amazing coincidence, the conclusion (page 24) of Mark Bauerlein’s paper reads:  “Students count more than articles in quarterlies”. 

Now this isn’t as bad as those other examples, but again:  would these practices constitute plagiarism for a university student - now, or in Ms. Wente’s day?  Especially, if they’re a kind of, you know, habit?  And lest we think this is all in the past, there are more recent examples of attribution problems to go along with many similar instances and the dozen or so Editor’s Notes over the last couple of years.

Yes, teaching is important, and there are probably always a few lazy professors – just like there are a few lazy journalists for whom a different set of standards might apply.  In The Ryerson Review of Journalism’s cover story on the Wente plagiarism affair, another scribe is quoted saying, “and the second message…was the sense that there was a double standard, that there was one rule for a famous columnist and another for the rest of us.”  (Perhaps some of them are thinking about this recently announced “voluntary separation” program).

But the last word on plagiarism and teaching should go to Ms. Wente herself, who wrote: “Teachers are told to give a pass to students who are caught plagiarizing…Kids aren't dumb. When they see…slackers and cheaters getting away with it, they're getting a values lesson they'll never forget.”

Couldn’t agree more.

Margaret Wente and quotes: Who said that?

Maybe Ms. Wente could hire "Linda" or (one of the other unemployed BAs regularly featured in her columns) to give them a quick once over.   If the UPI report is to believed, there looks to be another little problem with quotes here.

Margaret Wente:  Warren Buffett doesn’t think so, either. “The modern slot machine is one of the best ways to remove money from suckers known to man,” the legendary investor, who opposed casinos in his home state of Nebraska (and won), told reporters during an annual shareholders meeting. “It’s a terrible way to raise money. … It’s a tax on ignorance. I don’t like the idea of the government depending, for certain portions of its revenue, on hoodwinking citizens.”

Al Swanson, UPI: "It's a terrible way to raise money," Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway, told 19,500 shareholders in Omaha this month. "It's a tax on ignorance. ... I don't like the idea of government depending, for certain portions of its revenue, on hoodwinking citizens."

Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger called the modern slot machine "one of the best ways to remove money from suckers known to man."

Update:  Not sure when it happened, but another correction has been appended to Margaret Wente’s column to address the quotation error noted above.  I think that makes 12 (though there are likely the same number that haven’t been addressed).  It reads:

Correction: Thursday print edition and earlier online versions of this column incorrectly attributed a quote to Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett. In fact, the statement “The modern slot machine is one of the best ways to remove money from suckers known to man” was made by Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman Charlie Munger.