Plagiarism Leads to Personal Turnaround

Here's an excerpt from an interesting article in WORLD magazine that is (a) about journalism ethics and (b) has a local--Fort Wayne--connection.


Wins & losses

Even in politics, falling down can lead to a new kind of strength

by Warren Cole Smith

Since 2001, Tim Goeglein had helped run the White House Office of Public Liaison, a heady job that gave him almost daily access to President George W. Bush. All that came to an end on Feb. 29, 2008.

Blogger Nancy Nall Derringer did a web search on an unusual name in a column Goeglein had been writing for several years for his hometown newspaper, the Ft. Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel. She discovered Goeglein had copied verbatim a 1998 editorial from the Dartmouth Review.

She blogged about the plagiarism, and The News-Sentinel discovered at least 27 of Goeglein's 38 pieces for the paper had been plagiarized. By mid-afternoon the next day, Goeglein's career in the White House was over.

For Goeglein, that began "a personal crisis unequaled in my life, bringing great humiliation on my wife and children, my family, and my closest friends, including the president of the United States."

His two-decade political career had included nearly eight years in the White House and stints as spokesman for Gary Bauer's presidential campaign and for former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., who is again running for the U.S. Senate this year. "But I was guilty as charged," he admitted. Why did he plagiarize? "It was 100 percent pride."