The highly controversial plagiarism hunter Stefan Weber intervenes in the hot phase of the American election campaign. He accuses Democratic candidate Kamala Harris of copying other authors in a 2009 book. For Donald Trump’s campaign team, the accusations are a bull’s-eye, even though little can actually be done about it.
The communications scientist and journalist from Salzburg repeatedly makes a name for himself by checking scientific works by public figures for plagiarism and publicly reporting any violations.
Sources not mentioned in non-fiction
Now another report from him is circulating on social media: This time, as usual, it does not concern anyone from German-speaking countries; As he describes on the platform – without citing the relevant source.
He also repeatedly accuses the Democrat of ‘self-plagiarism’, because she also quotes from her own speeches or articles. A procedure that is completely common in the US – Donald Trump also repeatedly repeats several standing sentences verbatim in his interviews and speeches.
Passages from Wikipedia and news agencies
Passages are said to have been taken almost verbatim from Wikipedia, as well as from text portions of an Associated Press article or a press release from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. On his website, Weber compares which specific passages he considers suspicious: he discovered a total of 27 plagiarisms on the book’s 248 pages.
Republicans are grasping at straws
The accusation is now causing a subtle rumble in the US. “Kamala didn’t even write her own book,” sneered Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, referring to Weber’s report. And the study is also well received in far-right American media, such as ‘Breitbart News’.
But what’s behind the accusations? “Smart on Crime” was written prior to Harris’ campaign for California attorney general. The book’s description states that it “presents practical solutions to make the criminal justice system truly, not just rhetorically, tough.”
How serious are the allegations?
In fact, Weber’s findings seem justified at first glance. In some cases, sources are mentioned only once in the book, but then cited again without reference to them. Would Harris use her work – which she wrote to ghostwriter Joan O’C. Hamilton had it written – if it were actually branded as a scholarly work, these, along with others, would be very clear violations.
In fact, “Smart on Crime” is a nonfiction book that is subject to much lower standards because the texts are generally prepared for laypeople to be fluent and easy to understand. If you were to constantly note the sources in the style of a scientific article, this could seriously disrupt the reading flow.
Plagiarism expert only moderately enthusiastic
The editor of the professional blog ‘Plagiarism Today’ also comes to this conclusion. He described the self-proclaimed plagiarism hunter’s accusations to the New York Times as “not serious.” The expert also clarifies that the number of errors “for me indicates mistakes, and not an intention to cheat.”
The report is unlikely to have any real impact on the US elections. And Weber doesn’t seem entirely sure about the scope of his accusations either: “What does that say about Kamala Harris? (…) I have no idea,” he concludes on his website.
Source: Krone
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