Why Are We Back In Iraq?

(UPDATE - As soon as I can, I'm going to add the rest of the plagiarism stories I've written about Talon Newsers other than Jeff Gannon and not contained in the first archive to this post.)

I think it's safe to say that no "reporters" who worked/volunteered for Talon News were embedded with US troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But only Jim Hauser and GOPUSA owner Bobby Eberle know why an article, which appeared during their first week of operation, carried a dateline that indicated that it had been reported from Baghdad, Iraq.

I can't imagine that any real life journalist would risk their life in order to capture a first-hand experience from a warzone, only to instead choose to "copy-and-paste" it from the Internet, but perhaps that's the way journalism works these days, after all I've yet to see one word about the rampant plagiarism at GOPUSA appear in a mainstream news outlet.

This is the kind of news you can only read about on left-leaning blogs.

"Chemical Tipped Missiles Found Near Baghdad" By Jim Hauser was posted on April 8, 2003 on the Talon News Website. Besides the fact that the story didn't even pan out to be true (in those days of "freedom fries" no one wanted to believe Agence France-Presse who had it right when they said that it was only pesticides), some lines from it were originally read by millions, the day before, at the FOXnews Website, where it ran as "Preliminary Tests Show Chemical Weapons at Iraqi Site" credited to the Fox News team of Major Garrett, Liza Porteus and Mike Tobin with contributions from The Associated Press (GOPUSA & FOXnews).

FOXnews/A.P.: "Iraq used mustard and sarin against Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and is believed to have used the chemicals against Kurdish Iraqis."

Jim Hauser: "Iraq used mustard and Sarin against Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and is believed to have used the chemicals against Kurdish Iraqis."

FOXnews/A.P.: "Iraq began producing sarin in 1984 and admitted to possessing 790 tons of it in 1995."

Jim Hauser: "Iraq began producing Sarin in 1984 and admitted to possessing 790 tons of it in 1995."

Jim also "borrowed" from a few lines in a Reuters article entitled "U.S. Say It May Have Found Iraqi WMD Storage Site"

Reuters: "...the cache was discovered by Marines with the 101st Airborne Division, which was following up behind the Army after it seized Baghdad's international airport."

Jim Hauser: "The missiles were discovered by Marines with the 101st Airborne Division, which was following up behind the Army after it seized Baghdad's international airport."

Reuters: "...U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar had no immediate comment."

Jim Hauser: "U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar had no immediate comment..."

Jim Hauser cribbed another paragraph describing the specifications and the history of the weapons from a page at GlobalSecurity.org.

The unembedded Jim Hauser's 263 word article contained little more than ten-or-so words that he didn't copy-and-paste from the aforementioned Internet sites.

Congratulations, Jim Hauser, you are the fifth Talon News journalist to have the dubious honor of being outed on this blog as a plagiarist.

Perhaps the National Press Club will be issuing you an invitation to attend some future "event." After all, Jim Hauser also has a Website ("Jim Hauser is the editor, writer, webmaster, chief cook and bottle washer here at J.D.Hauser.com.") and, unlike Jeff Gannon, still can be found at the GOPUSA Website as the "Mississippi editor" (Mississippi is probably where he was an unembedded war reporter).

You gotta love this section of the "Reprint and Fair Use Notice" at his Website: "So instead of giving you a bunch of rules about what you can or can not do with the material (short of direct plagiarism) you can use the material at your own discretion. Unlike those who think that people can not be trusted and have to be led around like sheep it is the author's contention that most people will do the right thing."

Unlike you, I do the right thing, J.D. Hauser, I give you lots of credit for your plagiarism.

# posted by Ron Brynaert : 4/02/2005 03:02:00 AM