Propaganda or Scholarship?
Press Action
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/akram11062003/
A Response to N. Friedman
N. Friedman offers justifications of Dershowitz’s use of source materials from the fraudulent work of Joan Peters. Friedman’s arguments are that “every one of the allegedly copied quotes also all appear together in numerous other sources—including some on the Internet” and “the quoted materials are part and parcel of any argument on the subject in question.” Therefore, (s/)he opines Dershowitz’s use of source materials from Peters is okay.
Let’s recall exactly what Dershowitz has done. Finkelstein has shown that Dershowitz has lifted wholesale from Peters’ book over 20 exact quotes that he uses in the first two chapters of “The Case for Israel.” Finkelstein also demonstrates that Dershowitz reproduces the same falsifications of quotes that Peters does in her book. Dershowitz (see “The Case for Israel,” p.57) has even resorted to replicating Peters’ invented phrase “turnspeak.” However, he falsely attributes this phrase to George Orwell rather than Peters. This example would be hilarious if it was not such an egregious example of poor scholarship.
When one uses source materials cited by author(s), it is a standard practice not to only to cite the original source but also the secondary source from which the author obtained the source material. When quoting source material, a scholar has a responsibility to never engage in the distortion of that material simply to advance a viewpoint. Deliberately doing so is unworthy of a scholar. Dershowitz’s book is an outstanding example of lifting source materials and distorting quotes. For a scholar this is completely unacceptable. Friedman’s suggestion that Dershowitz’s actions are justified because “every one of the allegedly copied quotes also all appear together in numerous other sources --- including some on the Internet” is truly novel. It may apply for propaganda work, but not scholarship. If such standards were followed by college students and law students then there would be no point in having any codes on plagiarism.
Tanweer Akram