That headline nearly killed me to write. I’ll never make a sub-editor.
Of more interest than my struggles for brevity is the fact that the Irish Times writer has responded to Kevin’s feelings of deja vu, experienced when successively reading the New York Times obit of French Thinkifyer Jean Baudrillard (tips on pronunciation would be welcomed) and Boyd’s obit of same for the Irish Times.
The full text is here.
My choice of extract;
Patricia Cohen’s obit is 740 words long, mine is 1,250 – if I mentioned The Matrix at point 58% of my article and Patricia Cohen mentioned The Matrix at point 58% of hers (and I haven’t proportionally measured the articles), what does this show/prove?
This is deconstructualism taken out into the field. The late M. Baudrillard would be gleeful. Or impassive. It’s hard to tell with French philosophs.
via Blurred Keys, we are given the Irish Times’ considered opinion
“A charge of plagiarism is very serious, but we are satisfied that Brian Boyd’s article is not a re-write of the New York Times story??? an Irish Times spokesperson told Blurred Keys. “It covers some similar territory, and makes some similar observations, as do other features and obits about Baudrillard, but the accusation is unsubstantiated and unfair.
4 Comments
You’ve done the paper round, maybe now do the plagiaround? Be nice to go over Boyd’s work over the past 12 months and see does it remind people of any other articles…
I like Boyd’s column in the Ticket, and I’m impressed that he bothered to respond to Kevin at all. The reasoned tone in his correspondance with Kevin is refreshingly adult. I’m not entirely convinced though. Sure, his article is longer, but it could still have been largely based around the NYT piece, which he’s careful to neither confirm nor deny having read.
The Times’ own attitude is as sniffy as one might expect, dismissing any allegations of plagiarism as “unsubstantiated and unfair”. The allegations may not be accurate, but they were neither unfair in the the circumstances nor were they unsubstantiated.
Mr. Boyd has emailed me directly as a result of my above comment. He relishes my suggestion. I think.
You’ve done the paper round, maybe now do the plagiaround? Be nice to go over Boyd’s work over the past 12 months and see does it remind people of any other articles…
Would that make Tuppenceworth an “attack blog” and “obsessed” with Brian Boyd? Perhaps Damo can tell us.