IT JUST GETS WORSE:
Gun control groups are downplaying questions about plagiarism after one organization issued a statement to the media containing language that is, in some instances, identical to passages in a copyrighted news report published four days earlier by the Associated Press.
Leah Barrett, executive director of Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse (MAHA), denied any wrongdoing in issuing a statement Monday that contained numerous statements that were mirror images of portions of an AP article that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News and other media outlets Jan. 30. . . .
Barrett issued a statement to CNSNews.com Feb. 3 in response to an inquiry for a news article being prepared about the Department of Justice taking over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), confirming that the statement was sent by her exclusively to the Internet news wire in response to its inquiry.
“The rabid NRA has no better ally in Washington than Attorney General John Ashcroft, once featured in a National Rifle Association magazine cover story as ‘a breath of fresh air’ in the capital,” read a portion of Barrett’s statement.
In a Jan. 30 AP article about gun control, reporter Curt Anderson wrote: “Gun owners may have no better ally in Washington than Attorney General John Ashcroft, once featured in a National Rifle Association magazine cover story as ‘a breath of fresh air’ in the capital.'”
Barrett’s Feb. 3 statement contained other passages that were identical to parts of Anderson’s AP article.
Of course, as the reader who sent this link noted, it’s really the Associated Press who should be embarrassed — for publishing a news story that could be turned into an advocacy-group press release with only a few words being altered.
Conspiracy theory of the week: this is proof that the American gun-control movement is a tool of British intelligence. Lyndon Larouche, call your office!
UPDATE: Reader Drew Kelley emails: “My question Glenn, is: How do we know that the original AP news story wasn’t just a reworked press release from one of the gun-control groups?”