Ann Coulter: Plagiarist? I don't think so.

If anyone actually reads this blog, you may have noticed the little debate I had a short time ago over this post regarding Ann Coulter's new book Godless. While the debate quickly branched away from Coulter's book, the debate started over charges of plagiarism brought against Coulter.

The initial source of the charges brought up appears here...and there are more charges here (for a much more coherent review of the charges, see this report by MSNBC).

Of course, these charges, brought up in the liberal blog "The Rude Pundit," are not likely to sway my opinion of Coulter, especially after I came across a post entitled, "Why Ann Coulter is a ****" (note: this post contains tons of vulgarity, and I only link to it reluctantly and as an example of the vitriolic hatred "The Rude Pundit" routinely engages in...for more examples, click here at your own risk).

Now, I have been reading Godless on my own (and enjoying it, by the way), and I have read the allegations of plagiarism. Most of them are innocent: what "The Rude Pundit" claims is plagiarism is nothing more than Coulter using similar wording to the sources from which she drew her information. In one case, "The Rude Pundit" claims that Coulter plagiarized a 1988 press conference by explaining the events that occurred when a convicted rapist and murder released on furlough again committed rape and murder, and then committed suicide...in the same order that they were described in the press conference! As if Coulter should have explained that the criminal, once furloughed, committed suicide, murdered a woman, and then proceeded to rape her.

As allegations of plagiarism spread via the internet and then the news media, Coulter's syndicator, Universal Press Syndicate, decided to do their own investigating, later announcing that they saw no legitimate claims of plagiarism. Even the Daily Kos, an extreme liberal blog, stated that the charges of plagiarism were "overblown."

Basically what it gets down to is that these allegations of plagiarism amount to nothing more than baseless attacks on Coulter's credibility...which most liberals wouldn't give a plug nickle for, anyway. And, as it turns out, their attacks have, if anything, bolstered Coulter's credibility by giving her the closest thing to an endorsement by the Daily Kos that she's ever likely to get.