That's kind of hard to square with the speechwriter's belated admission that she did, in fact, use words lifted directly from Michelle Obama's speech. What's worse for that position, the speechwriter says that she got those words from Melania Trump herself, which means that Ms. Trump knew their source.silvercamaro wrote:My reaction is, to the exent that Melania may have borrowed words or thoughts, that she took them from my mother and probably your mother, everybody's grandfather, countless commencement speakers, and an array of would-be small town mayors, among others. In other words, there is an unofficial and probably unpublished list of "Good Things To Say." Many public speakers snag phrases from the list as it floats around the ether. That may mean the speakers are not particularly original in every respect, but they've still said good things. This does not rise to the level of plagiarism, any more than if I advise a prospective sun-bather to "Wear sunscreen," even though that has been said before.
Do I correctly recall that you have a background in journalism? If a newspaper writer lifted that much language from another source without attribution, wouldn't she be fired?
The criticism of the plagiarism is (in my view) entirely fair, and with this new revelation it's likewise fair to lay at least some of the blame directly on Melania Trump. --Bob
