One of those things where it's really just one person (er, possibly two?) being wanky, but if you love a good plagiarism scandal as much as I do -- most particularly when the accused follows the script so familiar from fandom to the letter -- it's pretty entertaining.

So, Slate writer Jody Rosen is made aware that one of his articles has been plagiarized in a small Texas weekly called the Montgomery County Bulletin, under the byline of one "Mark Williams." Further digging (detailed in that link) turns up many, many Bulletin articles plagiarized from sources ranging from USA Today and The Guardian to (*snerk*) customer reviews on Amazon.

After this draws some attention from Gawker and the Houston Press, plus some sniffing the air catching the scent of a story by NPR and the New York Observer, Bulletin publisher Mike Ladyman is shutting down the paper, taking his toys and going home! That meanie Rosen "truly acts like the rock-and-roll or the music critic" and is guilty of "an attack, an attention-grabbing hatchet job." Even though Ladyman doesn't really deny the plagiarism. It was just inadvertent. Mark Williams meant to be copying press releases, or something.

He does, however, deny the Houston Press's insinuations of sockpuppetry shenanigans. Ladyman insists that Williams is a real person.

Indeed, Williams is real enough to have his feelings hurt, and this is where the plagiarist's script so familiar from fandom gets whipped out:

( Some highlights )

So, this Jody Rosen -- a mean girl (despite being male) in the world of journalism, Y/Y?

(But it can't make him use the shift key consistently.)

Giles Coren would like you to know that "a" is very srs bsn:

3) And worst of all. Dumbest, deafest, shittest of all, you have removed the unstressed 'a' so that the stress that should have fallen on "nosh" is lost, and my piece ends on an unstressed syllable. When you're winding up a piece of prose, metre is crucial. Can't you hear? Can't you hear that it is wrong? It's not fucking rocket science. It's fucking pre-GCSE scansion. I have written 350 restaurant reviews for The Times and i have never ended on an unstressed syllable. Fuck. fuck, fuck, fuck.

I am sorry if this looks petty (last time i mailed a Times sub about the change of a single word i got in all sorts of trouble) but i care deeply about my work and i hate to have it fucked up by shit subbing. I have been away, you've been subbing joe and hugo and maybe they just file and fuck off and think "hey ho, it's tomorrow's fish and chips" - well, not me. I woke up at three in the morning on sunday and fucking lay there, furious, for two hours. weird, maybe. but that's how it is.

It's just his letter, but oh, it's so tasty and I love "academic" wank on a Sunday, don't you?