One plagiarism flap, three imbecilities

The global association president read lines from a previous speech by a national association president. Who's to blame? Who ISN'T?

Yesterday after getting a tip from Canadian PSA member Lorne Christensen on a strangely dramatic plagiarism case, I cobbled together this report:

DEVELOPING: This weekend the new president of the World Medical Association gave a speech at a big WMA conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. A former president of the Canadian Medical Association was in the audience and found the speech familiar.

โ€œI turned to one of my colleagues next to me and said, โ€˜This is my speech!'โ€ Dr. Chris Simpson told the Globe and Mail. โ€œI was then able to speak simultaneously along with him. It was just surrealโ€“there is no other word for it.โ€

The Canadian Medical Association abruptly quit the World Medical Association in order to โ€œtake a stand for honesty and integrity,โ€ the current head of the CMA said.

The money line for us fromย the Globe and Mail piece: โ€œA spokesman for [the World Medical Association] said that its new president was not aware that his speech was plagiarized because he had used speechwriters and that most doctors present at the conference โ€˜accepted his apologyโ€™ for the error.โ€

The PSA will continue to follow the story and may have comment if appropriate.

After checking the wires for about 24 hours, the story hasnโ€™t changed much, or been elaborated upon.

Perhaps now it is safe to do what I was inclined to do in the first place: Blame everyone involved, in ascending order of power.

1. The unnamed speechwriters,ย who seem to have intentionally or unwittingly copied and pasted parts of the speech down to the semi-colons, from parts of the previous presidentโ€™s speech and other articles and blog posts. If guilty (and assuming they do exist), these scribes not only violated the Professional Speechwriters Associationโ€™sย Speechwriterโ€™s Code of Ethics, but also the Desperate Sixth-Grade Language Arts Studentโ€™s Laziness Policy.

2.ย The speaker of the speech,ย who in exchange for the big bucks, must take responsibility for every syllable of every platitude he utters. Unless, of course, heโ€™s willing to tamp down the standing ovation he receives after he delivers a good speech, and bring out the speechwriters for a bow.

3. The old fools in high stools who run such associations like drama queens.ย While the world canโ€™t agree on how to care for 7.4 billion people in a conscionable way, theย CMA resigned from the global medical organization overย this?ย These two organizations, asย I suspected, were not on sterling terms before this incident. A few industry insider reports murmur of an ongoing internecine battle over the Canadian groupโ€™s stance on abortion, and having something to do with the new president, Dr. Leonid Eidelman, being head of the Israeli Medical Association, with whom the CMA has a longstanding conflict. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

So yes, itโ€™s likely that one or more speechwriters messed up. And unless they have a dog-cut-and-pasted-my-homework story the likes of which Iโ€™ve never heard before, their offense is obviously fireable.

The speakerโ€”Dr. Eidelmanโ€”has already received all the punishment heโ€™ll get, in the form of public embarrassment. We hope heโ€™s learned a lesson: Work more closely with his speechwriters next time, so theyโ€™re writing down what heโ€™s told them he wants to say, rather than groping for bromides in the dark.

And the association executives? Well, as Kissinger said, โ€œAcademic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so small.โ€

Grow up, kids. Youโ€™re not on Sesame Street anymore.ย โ€”DM

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