At Daily Kos, one diarist posts a critical item about incoming MSNBC host Monica Crowley, who is set to do a show on the cabler with Ron Reagan in early ‘05. In the piece, we’re led to a 1999 article by Slate’s Timothy Noah, “Nixon’s Monica Stonewalls About Plagiarism!”
Noah details an item Crowley had written for the Wall Street Journal in 1999 “commemorating” the 25th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency. Shortly after the piece ran, the WSJ printed this editor’s note:
“There are striking similarities in phraseology between “The Day Richard Nixon Said Goodbye,” an editorial feature Monday by Monica Crowley, and a 1988 article by Paul Johnson in Commentary magazine … Had we known of the parallels, we would not have published the article.”
Noah says, “Pretty interesting, no?” Yes, it most certainly is. Here’s one bit of the evidence that was put forth -
From Johnson’s “In Praise of Richard Nixon,” Commentary, October 1988:
“There was none of the personal corruption which had marked the rule of Lyndon Johnson, let alone the gross immoralities and security risks of John F. Kennedy’s White House.”
From Crowley’s “The Day Nixon Said Goodbye,” Wall Street Journal, August 9, 1999:
“There was none of the personal corruption that had marked the rule of Lyndon Johnson or the base immoralities and outrageous security risks of the Kennedy and Clinton White Houses.”
Read the whole thing.
[ed: Crowley’s email box is full this morning, and MSNBC has not yet responded to a request for comment. Via Atrios.]
