I once accused an MSM writer of plagiarizing my post about Matisyahu. Ha. That was embarassing.

All anyone wants to talk about these days is that ominous case of J-blog plagiarism. If you've been under a rock for the past week or so, read Ezzie's summary of events. He even quotes me as saying, "Our standards should be - nay, must be - much, much higher" when my actual words were, "someone's got to set the j-blog community standards higher." I smell plagiarism... Ezzie, did you really think I'd let you get away with putting the word "nay" in my mouth?!? Lol, seriously though, read up and learn from the good man who never sleeps! But if you want my opinion, you'll have to read it in my comment at Jewschool, because I just can't get into that* discussion again! Allright, just one tidbit:

It’s like that kid in ‘the squid and the whale’ who plays Pink Floyd’s ‘hey you’ for the school talent show, claiming to have written it. Ofcourse he is caught, but while noone in the audience hates him or wants to see him humiliated and hung out to dry, everyone comes away with the feeling that the kid’s got some MAJOR issues (and mostly they pity him). Same here. I don’t think there’s a need to crucify DB, and chances are this noteriety wont slow his traffic down, but he’ll just never be the same person to anyone again.

I once accused an MSM reporter, Jody Rosen, of not exactly plagiarism but what I call intellectual recycling. I was wrong; I just happened to have had some very similar ideas and written about them shortly before his publication. I apologized instantly, because clearly it's a serious charge to any writer (one I shouldn't have made so quickly in public), but take a look at how subtle the line is between simultaneous thinking, similar wording and actual pilfering.

• The accusation: Did Slate Magazine Recycle my Post?

• The writer's defense: Jody Rosen Comments and I Apologize
  

Read the comments about property rights in blogland. I also must mention that it was very kind of Mr. Rosen to not attack me in return--he certainly had the right**, but instead chose to comment graciously and patiently, pointing out my mistake.

*I hate to sound preachy. One reason why I had stopped blogging for a while was because I realized that all many of us did around here was judge other people and whine about everything bad in the Orthodox world, be it chilul hashem, radicalism, bad behavior, or hypocricy. Who needs it?
**There's a certain out there who could learn some manners on how to deal with delicate situations.