That the early outlets pushing the Hedges as plagiarist narrative are all notorious neocon right-wing propaganda mills is telling. There is the warmonger bible that is William Kristol's Weekly Standard with "War is a Force that Makes Us Plagiarize", the odious Breitbart.com with "Pulitzer Prize Winning Lefty Writer Hit With Serial Plagiarism Charges" , the Stormfront for neocons Front Page Magazine with "Plagiarism is a Force that Gives Chris Hedges Meaning" and a universe of lesser known bottom-feeders as well as what might as well be a DNC-Clinton propaganda organ Daily Kos and there will be more piling on as the story makes it's way through the sausage machine.
So the worst case scenario is that Hedges fucked up, it happens to the best of them, but when you are as outspoken as he has been, his number of enemies grows by the day and a general rule of survival in this savage society is that you never give anyone the knife that they would use to cut your throat with. Hedges did and now all of his really good work will always be tainted by linkage with the New Republic piece which will have a lasting effect, exactly how liberal blogger Jane Hamsher of Firedog Lake puts it here:
The piece was passed on by the American Prospect and Salon before TNR decided to pick it up. I started reading it thinking "okay, plagiarism, Chris Hedges, I'll read this," expecting to find some legitimate examples. But the best they could do was one section of a Harper's Magazine article Hedges said he used with permission, and the original author wouldn't comment. Then the article goes on to document times where Hedges' writing was "close" to other pieces.
This story was maybe worth 500 words. Maybe. Apparently the Prospect and Salon didn't think the Harper's story wasn't worthy of publication without some sort of confirmation, and I have to say I'd make the same call. The only reason you'd publish a 5700 word long screed like this is if you really, really hated the guy and wanted to defame him and tarnish his image. (The next step will be to consistently refer to the fact that Hedges has been "accused of plagiarism in the past" -- typical Neocon circle-jerk disinformation hatchet job).
And it will stick in that unlike a man who revels in the raw brutality of trench warfare like Glenn Greenwald, Hedges lacks the killer instinct necessary to counterattack. It is disappointing that other than Hamsher there is no defense of Hedges on this point from progressives and liberals who don't drink the Obama-Clinton Kool Aid. Nor is there a defense from libertarians who are jumping on the neocon bandwagon to bash Hedges largely out of ideological differences and a knee jerk aversion to anything that even remotely resembles socialism despite much common ground on the police state, war and civil liberties.
If Hedges is guilty of anything, it is hubris, which is something that a man with an appreciation for classical literature and philosophy should understand much better than he does. He should have understood that sooner or later there would be an effort to discredit him and covered his ass better than he did. That being said though, Hedges will likely have far more success if he just sues the hell out of Ketcham, The New Republic and Harpers than he did in suing Obama. He would be foolish if he didn't immediately lawyer up to settle this matter once and for all in a court of law so as to remove this ugly blight on his reputation that will be used going forward to discredit his message by those seeking to protect the corrupt system and keep the wars going.
[Note: Edited to remove redundant reference to Ketcham's wife -DM)
(Article changed on June 15, 2014 at 15:00)
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
