(This is a bit long, but stick with me, it’s unbelievable)
On January 25th the Minnesota Daily published a letter to the editor from Abul-Rahman Magba-Kamara, chairman of the UMN College Republicans. The letter’s a bit too long to post in the body here, but you can find the whole text below the fold or on the paper’s site here. But, just to give you a taste, here’s the first paragraph:
Al Franken’s traveled around the state to college campuses trying to get the votes of young people. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television commercials trying to portray himself as a nice guy. He even enlisted his fourth-grade teacher to give a testimonial about what a nice boy he was in elementary school.
A week later on February 7th, The Winona Daily News published a letter to the editor from Samantha Gronlund, a Winona State University student. Again, the letter’s a bit too long but the text is below the fold and can be found on the paper’s site here. And, again, here’s the first paragraph:
Al Franken’s travels around the state to college campuses trying to get the votes of young people are well documented. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television commercials trying to portray himself as a nice guy. He has even enlisted his fourth grade teacher to give a testimonial about what a nice boy he was in elementary school.
Sound familiar? I think the sum total difference between the two paragraphs amounts to three insignificant changes… The startling thing is that they are virtually identical the whole way through and the thing’s 10 paragraphs long! Seriously, I’ve included both below the fold, it’s startling, but let me restate where we’re at: Two papers published identical letters to the editor attacking Al Franken within a 2 week span but attributed to two entirely different individuals. The academic integrity of these two students is of serious question, but that’s not my concern right now.
It’s not surprising that someone else found this weird.
Apparently tipped off to this disturbing occurrence, The Winona Daily News published the following correction on Saturday the 9th (emphasis mine):
Page: 4A A letter published by the Daily News on Feb. 7 and written by Samantha Gronlund, a Winona State University student, appears to have been written by someone else. The letter also appeared at the same time in another student publication in Minnesota by a different author.
According to Ms. Gronlund, the letter came from Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign and was a form letter. While the Daily News’ mission is to encourage a robust, community-centered forum, it also prohibits form letters or any plagiarized letters. If any letters submitted and published are verified as form letters or plagiarized, we will inform our readers as soon as possible. -Darrell Ehrlick, editor
Wait, wait, wait… “the letter came from Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign”!? So, in other words, Senator Coleman’s campaign distributed form letters to supporters which then just found their way into local papers but attributed to the submitters? Hmm… something smells fishy here.
The letter was obviously formatted as a pre-fab letter to the editor by the Coleman campaign and both of these supporters must have felt that the campaign was content with as-is submission of the letters… Why is the Coleman campaign encouraging college students to defraud papers? Why is the Coleman campaign distributing pre-fab letters to the editor and why would they not, at the very least, make it clear that these are not to be copied? These supporters have defrauded these two papers by submitting campaign produced materials under their own names.
This is absurd and disgusting behavior. I certainly hope that the Coleman campaign can explain how this happened under their watch. And even assuming the best case scenario, it’s just really pathetic that all they can muster is generic, pre-fab attacks on Al. I mean, apparently there just aren’t any Coleman supporters out there with some genuine rage of their own to express…
Minnesota Daily Version
Al Franken’s traveled around the state to college campuses trying to get the votes of young people. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television commercials trying to portray himself as a nice guy. He even enlisted his fourth-grade teacher to give a testimonial about what a nice boy he was in elementary school.
In one fell swoop Franken showed that he lacks the class, maturity and decency to be a United States senator.
Earlier this month, at Carlton College, Franken attacked a Carlton College student simply because the kid was a conservative - and because the kid didn’t want to get in a photograph with Franken.
Franken didn’t get into a civil conversation with him, according to an article in the Star Tribune on Jan. 23. He viciously demeaned him by mocking his body language and his speech.
This is an adult man who probably could be this young man’s father.
The worst part of all of this is that the young man tried to get through an uncomfortable situation by having the class to try to shake Franken’s hand and basically say, “Hey, no hard feelings.”
Instead, Franken refused to shake his hand and essentially said, “who cares” and walked away with his staff dragging him away.
What kind of person goes out of his way to taunt a young person who clearly was nervous and uncomfortable? What kind of mean streak do you have to have to attack some college student who simply happened showed up to hear what you had to say?
Franken thinks that he has earned the right to run for the United States Senate because he used to live in Minnesota 30 years ago.
Franken deserves nothing but contempt for his treatment of this young man. At a minimum Franken owes this young man an apology, not the excuse his staff gave that Franken was tired and had a long day.
Shame on you Al Franken.
Abdul-Rahman Magba-Kamara
chairman, U of M College Republicans
Winona Daily News Version
By Samantha Gronlund | Winona
Al Franken’s travels around the state to college campuses trying to get the votes of young people are well documented. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television commercials trying to portray himself as a nice guy. He has even enlisted his fourth grade teacher to give a testimonial about what a nice boy he was in elementary school.
In one fell swoop, Al Franken showed that he lacks the class, maturity and decency to be a United States Senator. Earlier this month, at Carleton College, Franken verbally attacked a Carleton College student simply because the kid was a conservative — and, because the kid didn’t want to get in a photograph with Franken. Franken refused to get into a civil conversation with him and viciously demeaned him by mocking his body language and his speech, according to a Jan. 23 article in the Star Tribune.
The worst part of all of this is that the young man tried to get through an uncomfortable situation by having the class to try to shake Franken’s hand and basically say, “Hey, no hard feelings.” Instead, Franken refused to shake his hand.
What kind of person goes out of his way to harass a student who clearly was nervous and uncomfortable? What kind of mean streak do you have to have to attack some college student who simply happened to show up at a public event to hear what you had to say?
Franken believes he has earned
the right to run for the United States Senate because he lived in Minnesota 30 years ago. Franken deserves nothing but contempt for his treatment of this young man. At a minimum Franken owes this young man an apology, not the pathetic excuse his staff gave that Franken was tired and had a long day.
Gronlund is Winona State University student.
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WTF?? DEFRAUD??
Bwahahahahaaaaaa!
So every time we link a LTE to some Soros Sock Puppet we can cry FRAUD? BWahahaha, oh God this is good!
Linked, no. Wholesale copied and then credited to someone else, absolutely. Please, bring them forward.
To clarify: I have no problem with campaigns soliciting LTEs on specific subjects from their supporters; that’s a credible and absolutely above the board thing to do. What’s not okay is copying the campaign’s material word for word and then crediting it as your own. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but that’s just not ethical.
So how much a person changes a press release before it gets published makes a difference in how ethical it is? Is this a black and white issue or is there a range of gray? If somebody sends in a letter of posts something on a blog that provides the exact same content and idea but changes the words around a little more is that completely alright or just a little better?
Sorry but this is just another example of Astroturf political movements. It is done all the time… I mean a sleaze-ball like Norm Coleman and you don’t EXPECT this kind of lying lies? Would it really be any better if they grabbed a thesaurus and went to town?
Republicans sent soldiers into battle without adequate equipment and you think they care about a few dirty tricks? sorry but when your only political philosophy is greed, this doesn’t even show up on the Republican “moral” radar.
KH: There’s TONS of gray here, which is why it’s stunning to see an example like this that’s completely black and white. We could have a very legitimate discussion for hours on end as to where to draw the line, but clearly this is a simpler case where the letter has been wholesale copied. When I originally saw the correction I thought, “how similar can they actually be;” imagine my surprise…
Matt: After recognizing that you wrote a sloppy post about Demmer, you’ve now decided to move on to this story? Talk about a slow day in the liberal blogosphere.
Zzzzz.
Sorry, I fell asleep reading your post. Wake me up when you have something decent. Zzzzz.
Defraud seem a bit harsh, lets just call it a form letter LTE campaign shall we. “Nothing to see here, move along now.”
No wonder Brodkorb is falling asleep!
Lies and corruption from Norm and the wingnut right?
Zzzzzz, business as usual.
College Repuglicans lies and distortions
Zzzzzz, yea so what else is new?
Mark Ritchie stubbed his toe? Sound the alarm!!!!!
Sheesh, no wonder Brodkorb and the Republicans have become so irrelevent and out of touch.
Matt, you’re being a little hard on corporate norm here, he’s just trying to help. Asking a young republican to come up with an original thought is like asking a fish to climb mountains. It just can’t happen. norm was just trying to make them feel as if they were contributing. Bravo normy, bravo.
My guess is Mikey Brodkorb knows more about the author of these letters than he’s letting on.
While I agree that the form letter approach is asinine at best, I’ve got to say that it’s a pretty significant leap to go from what seems to have happened — ie: some college kids decided they should send off a form letter as their own — to saying that the Coleman campaign is attempting to defraud the press. At worst, the campaign has plausible deniability.
Of course, given that Norm still tries to say he’s married, he’s shown himself to be capable of some significant fraud.
Ah…a coctail of desperation and stupidity. Just what I would have expected from Norm and the college republicans.
Matt-
It seems a bit ironic that a Franken supporter would cry foul over such a minor issue when your own candidate has a habitual problem of fabrication. You should try focusing that high powered, “investigative” magnifying glass on Franken the Fibber, for a change.
Allow me to help you get started… http://www.frankenlies.com/truth/index.htm
Signing your name to a letter you didn’t even write is not “plagiarism” — it’s outright fraud.
Serious colleges and universities protect their reputations by establishing and enforcing rules and guidelines that govern student conduct, academic and otherwise.
I would be interested to know if, under each school’s guidelines and honor code, Samantha Gronlund and Abdul-Rahman Magba-Kamara would be subject to sanction, punishment, suspension or expulsion for their breathtakingly blatant dishonesty.
George Galloway putting Norm Coleman in his place on the Senate floor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lINNad6Njs
You’ve got it all wrong, folks. This is absolutely a campaign ethics issue. It is an outright violation for a campaign to disseminate a statement in such a way and ask other people, even supporters, to secretly sign it as their own, without any attribution to the campaign. It allows the campaign to secretly participate in a public forum under the guise of a concerned citizen. It allows a candidate to corrupt the process of public debate.
We mothers recognize that Samantha and Abdul are twins that were separated at birth, and think alike.
Let’s all work to reunite them!
jharp,
“Coleman claims vindication in spat with British MP,” Star Tribune. 7.17.2007
http://www.startribune.com/politics/11760011.html
Excerpt: “the U.K. report suggests the MP had a direct financial stake in the oil-for-food program, as Coleman alleged. The report includes a Galloway-Hussein meeting transcript from Aug. 8, 2002, on oil dealings in which Galloway mentions how certain unidentified problems with oil prices were affecting ‘our’ income and ‘our dues.’”
Sally Hemings - You said:
>It seems a bit ironic that a Franken supporter would cry foul over such a minor issue when your own candidate has a habitual problem of fabrication. You should try focusing that high powered, “investigative” magnifying glass on Franken the Fibber, for a change.
>Allow me to help you get started…
Allow me to follow up with - Bwa wha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!
Seriously! I saw the part about how Bush didn’t lie us into war and almost fell out of my chair.
Time to turn off Faux News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oy7K5j2amQ
Most universities have a code of behavior that prohibits plagerizing, in and out of the classroom.
If I were an administrator of the students, they would be expelled.
No real surprise. I remember the College Republicans from my undergraduate days at the U, and most of them were too stupid to write a 10 paragraph letter.
Brodkorb’s post on this thread is even funnier now seeing that Normy has apologized.
“Abdul-Rahman Magba-Kamara” Hmmmmm…
When is Tim Russert going to demand that Obama apologize for HIS astroturfing?
“INTENT TO DEFRAUD - the specific intent to deceive or cheat, ordinarily for the purpose of causing some financial loss to another, or bringing about some financial gain to one’s self. It is not necessary, however, to prove that the United States or anyone else was in fact defrauded so long as it is established that the person acted “with intent to defraud.” - Online Law Dictionary
In this case the two students deceived the two newpapers with form letter editorials, and they sought to deceive readers. There were no disclaimers that the students distributed the letters to give the impression of being witnesses to extremely rude behavior, although one writer admitted to his republican affiliation.
When did Americans decide that it was fine for their proposed representatives to be disrespectful and dishonest with them? Who decided that we would tolerate cheating in competition regardless of the profession chosen?
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if one’s doctor held the same attitude? What would one think of plumber who was so indifferent to his customers that he arranged the pipes so that every time one flushed the toilet it backed up into the bathtub? What would one think of an air-conditioning service person who discovered the only thing wrong with the customer’s unit was that the breaker interrupted the unit on the first seasonal start. The serviceman threw the breaker two minutes after he arrived and “acted” as if he worked on the unit for twenty-eight more minutes and then handed the customer a bill for $150.00. Thirty minutes a/c service? time for $150.00 is hilarious. After all, the world is filled with liars so only suckers believe what they hear and read, right?
From the conservative perspective it is the victim’s fault for being a sucker in a capitalist society. They derive great pleasure from such a thought and it serves as a ready excuse for a plethora of malfeasances.
Max,
The Star Tribune article is fiction. Funny thing, Mr. Galloway was never charged nor brought back to testify to the Senate.
I think you have him confused with Condoleeza Rice’s company, Chevron.
Who openly admitted to kickbacks in the oil for food and paid a $25 million dollar fine.
What was Galloway’s fine? I don’t recall seeing anything about it.
And I thought ‘Gary’ Coleman was a little man !!
Hey, I despise and distrust Norm Coleman as much as the next guy, but this is a non-story. Everyone else does this. The Coleman campaign was simply sloppy and got some attention out of it. They should be embarrassed because they were a little sloppy, but it’s not like this will make any hay. Voters won’t care because it is insignificant.
It’s called being petty.
A “non-story” when a lie gets disseminated?
You have a different standard.
This nonsense was apparently also in CJ’s strip GOSSIP column?
What a load of crap - a mini-Swiftboat by Coleman staffers!