When I last left Margaret Wente just over a week ago, she was bobbing merrily up and down along with the rest of the Con media, in the wreckage of the Harper regime.
Still praying for a miracle, and the destruction of Justin Trudeau.
But sadly for our Queen of the Globe, her deathly companion's prayers didn't work.
And she is still a snooty Con hack, and a serial plagiarist.
Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente has again been accused of plagiarism and the newspaper’s editor-in-chief has apologized, saying her work “fell short” of the paper’s standards.
After being caught in the act again by the blogger Carol Wainio at Media Culpa.
And although the Globe's editor-in chief David Walmsley is apologizing profusely and says Wente is deeply remorseful...
“This work fell short of our standards, something that we apologize for. It shouldn’t have happened and the opinion team will be working with Peggy to ensure this cannot happen again,” said Walmsley’s statement in the column.
Included in the column was a line that said Wente “deeply regrets these mistakes.”
This sordid story has gone from outrageous to pathetic. And is making them all look like idiots.
For whether Wente is deeply disturbed, and a compulsive plagiarist. Or she believes herself to be above the laws of journalism like our own Marie Antoinette...
She is in both cases deluded, and unfit to be a major columnist in a national Canadian newspaper.
You know, it's so pathetic I was almost tempted to feel sorry for her. For she clearly can't control herself.
Until I remembered what she wrote the last time she was forced to apologize back in 2012.
I’m far from perfect. I make mistakes. But I’m not a serial plagiarist. What I often am is a target for people who don’t like what I write. I haven’t always lived up to my own standards. I’m sorry for my journalistic lapses, and I think that, when I deserve the heat, I should take it and accept the consequences. But I’m also sorry we live in an age where attacks on people’s character and reputation seem to have become the norm.
Where she blamed others for making her lose her moral compass.
Nor for that matter can I forget how, despite what she says about attacking people's character, how cruelly she treated Elizabeth May after the Green leader embarrassed herself at that Press Gallery dinner.
Ms. May gets away with stuff that no other politician would – certainly no party leader. Imagine the fuss if any Conservative had delivered such a bumbling, profanity-laced speech to the nation’s leading journos. He would have been booed off the stage. He would have been judged unfit for his position and relegated to the nether regions of the party for the rest of his career.
So Wente deserves no mercy either, and should follow her own advice.
If she has a shred of dignity left she should resign, or offer up her head...
And if not the Globe should fire her.
Or better still demote her to writing obituaries.
For even if she steals their words, the dead won't complain...
Margaret Wente, a pathetic Con.
And a shameless plagiarist.
Whose time should finally be over...
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If the Globe in Mail was a newspaper instead of a corporate mouthpeiece
ReplyDeleteHi Steve....the way the Globe editors have reacted to the latest allegations is absolutely pathetic. But Wente is a big player for them, the master of click bait. She'll write anything to get people to read her, and these days newspapers are desperate for every reader they can snag...
DeleteThe Wente should just stick to regurgitating Con propaganda as if they were her own insightful views but vanity must have gotten the better of her. Wonder what percentage of the population view this publication as anything other than entertainment value. Its likely closely related to the number of Retro-Con supporters and fortunately is in decline.
ReplyDeleteRT
Hi RT...I honestly can't believe that Wente would keep on plagiarizing stuff after all the trouble it has caused her in the past. It's almost as if she has a self destructive streak. Or the morals of an alley cat. As I said in my post it almost makes me feel sorry for her. But then I think of how she's always spewing Con propaganda, or trying to bury idealism in a heap of smelly cynicism, and then I wish she was fired tomorrow....
DeleteRenzo, who was a street kitten, takes umbrage at the comparison.
DeleteSomehow, this obnoxious scuzz-ball has insinuated herself into the Canadian elite. And for them there are no standards and no consequences.
ReplyDeleteHi thwap...she was born into a wealthy family in the U.S and she has always acted like a snooty aristocrat. I thought you might be amused to see what she wrote about bloggers in 2010.
Delete"These days, you don't even have to start a blog to get an audience. All you have to do is write "Margaret Wente is an idiot" and hit send. Instant gratification
Perhaps you've noticed that most of the comments on these websites are not terribly sophisticated. They contain a large insult quotient, even when they come from people with advanced degrees. They remind me of nothing so much as a bunch of 12-year-olds holding peeing contests in the snow."
Great eh? We may be humble but at least many of us have standards, and hopefully we'll still be writing when Wente is shown the door...
I think it is safe to say that Globe readers have responded with fury over this latest shameful episode, Simon. How do I know? They have published only 12 readers' comments. Needless to say, mine was not one of them.
ReplyDeleteHi Lorne...yes I saw that, and when I last checked they were only up to thirteen. But as one commenter pointed out, the Globe did its best to bury the story. If the Star hadn't linked to it it would have been almost impossible to know it even existed. And of course, after ten years of Harper rule the ethical standards of many Canadians have been eroded. It always bugged me in school that some of the other kids were cheating and I couldn't because my parents raised me to be better than that. And they would have been so disappointed. But when I was in school cheating was a localized problem, now I'm afraid it's practically endemic...
DeleteWhy plagiarise when you can just put a few quote marks in with another writer's name and use their quote. I've never been in favour of an original thought when some one else has already had it and better. Just attribute it to the writer and enter quote marks. works every time.
ReplyDeleteWhat ever is the matter with Wente is beyond me but I'd suggest she isn't going to be fired any time soon. She has been around so long, she most likely has the dirt on everyone.
Hi e.a.f...as I said above I simply can't understand why Wente keeps on plagiarizing even though she's been caught before. Even some of the dumbest criminals know better than to do the same crime again. Quoting others doesn't make you look stupid, it makes you look well read. And stealing the ideas of other doesn't make you look smart, it makes you look morally corrupt.
DeleteI have a feeling conservatives find her behaviour admirable.
ReplyDeleteHi Jim....I hope you're wrong, but I suspect you're right. All they care about is having Wente attack or sneer at progressives. And all I can say is that's why we won and why they lost. And by the time we're finished with them there will be little left of Wente and the Cons...
Delete"And if not the Globe should fire her.
ReplyDeleteOr better still, demote her to writing obituaries."
Hey! I have a friend who writes obits for the Grope and Flail, and she deserves better than to have to work beside that arrogant word thief Margaret Wente. How about just handing ol' Marg her pink slip and having a security guard frog-march her out the front door?
I don't understand how she still has a job. Makes you wonder what kind of foot-rubbing and back-massaging goes on at G&M. Oh wait - that whole Arctic fake-finding-a-ship thing - done for the benefit of Harper and some dunderhead at the G&M who wanted to pretend he was an explorer.
ReplyDeleteAs for the CRISPR gene-editing that she is plagiarizing her way through, picking up bits of comments like a magpie picks up pieces of string - except magpies are smarter - here is an article from a concerned person with brains, on the bad effect CRISPR could have on mushrooms; an important food source, and disease fighter, and pollution-cleaner. http://www.fungi.net/blog/crispr-gene-edit
Globe and all Cdn media make me sick, with a few exceptions. Peter Mansbridge is starting to look like Mr. Burns? on The Simpsons. I'd be happy to have American journalists up here, at least they've got guts and wouldn't put up with a serial plagiarist.