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August 09, 2005
Even more bitter tears of plaige
What's worse than being caught plagiarizing? Being caught plagiarizing crap, that's what! Rich Page from Oregon's Cascade Institute (a self-styled libertarian think tank kinda thing) pointed me to this press release that calls Nicholas Kristof's original New York Times article — the source of Janet Bagnall's partially plagiarized article in the Gazette — into question:
Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development (OSD) has quietly recanted its much-publicized claim that 2004 carbon dioxide emissions in Multnomah County dropped below 1990 levels. In response to data requests from the Cascade Policy Institute, a Portland-based think tank, the OSD admitted that a math error resulted in a 2004 carbon dioxide calculation that was 74,561 tons too low. The re-stated total puts Multnomah County above the 1990 levels by more than 68,000 tons.
"Portland’s claim of painlessly reducing carbon dioxide has been repeated over and over by journalists, bloggers, and even some scientists for the past month, without any attempt to verify the accuracy of the OSD's report. In fact, actual carbon emissions have been well above the level claimed by Portland, and any regulatory program imposed by the government to lower emissions to pre-1990 levels is going to be costly to consumers, something elected officials apparently don’t understand," [Cascade President John A.] Charles said.
It really wasn't a very interesting article to begin with, quite frankly. I'm on record saying a single incident of accidental plagiarism isn't the end of the world, but this sure does add insult to injury for Ms Bagnall.
Ah, schadenfreude — so much more than just a sweet Austrian wine!
Posted by Chris Selley at August 9, 2005 11:26 PM
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