“Write what you know,” they tell first-time writers. Or, save that, I guess, write what someone else knew.
The staff of Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) were caught doing the latter by the Democratic tracking firm American Bridge. That produced this headline in the Boston Globe: ‘Scott Brown web message mirrors Elizabeth Dole’s remarks on site’
Whoops.
From the Globe:
In a message to students, the Massachusetts senator uses the exact words as remarks delivered by the former North Carolina senator at her campaign kickoff in 2002.
Brown’s staff acknowledged yesterday the words originally were Dole’s and said their presence in Brown’s message was the result of a technical error.
Here’s American Bridge’s rundown of what it found (with screengrabs!)
What does this all mean for Brown? It means headlines like this:
Politico: Scott Brown in plagiarism flap
CBS: Scott Brown camp regrets plagiarism “oversight”
Gawker: Scott Brown Is Apparently Bob Dole’s Wife
Not good. But, as our Vice President learned many years ago, not necessarily permanently fatal.
