Yesterday, we were writing a joke about Chuck Norris copy-and-pasting other people's "information" into his column when we realized, yes, this is probably exactly what he did. We checked, and, what do you know, he did plagiarize parts of that op-ed. Is it surprising the man who's responsible for stuff like this isn't exactly intellectually honest? No. But it is rather surprising he got this by Creators Syndicate, which, despite the man being known for kicking rather than rousing political commentary, manages to place his column in actual newspapers and also crappy conservative websites like WoldNetDaily, Townhall, NewsBusters, the American Family Association, and Human Events. And it's even more surprising considering Chuck Norris plagiarizes in his column hilariously often, according to today's WONKETTE INVESTIGATION.
We have yet to receive comment from Norris or Creators Syndicate on yesterday's column, which already appears on the websites of WND, the AFA, and Townhall. NewsBusters, which has yet to post it on their site, said they would contact Creators Syndicate and "suggest they have a problem." Will Creators Syndicate stand up to Norris and ask him to explain himself? Or does his reputation strike fear into their hearts? We'll have to see.
We've only made it through the columns published by Norris in the past two months or so, but it's pretty clear he doesn't see any problem with lifting the writing of others to fill out his inane viewpoints.
Compare this paragraph from his April 18 column:
President Barack Obama's adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, appeared on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist group to talk about Shariah law. Miss Mogahed said the Western view of Shariah was "oversimplified" and that the majority of women around the world associate it with "gender justice."
To this 2009 news article in the Daily Telegraph :
President Barack Obama's adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, has provoked controversy by appearing on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist group to talk about Sharia Law.
Miss Mogahed [...] said the Western view of Sharia was "oversimplified" and the majority of women around the world associate it with "gender justice".
Compare this selection from Norris' February 14 column:
The Arabic studies program, funded by a five-year, $1.3 million Foreign Language Assistance Program federal grant, was to begin this semester at Cross Timbers Intermediate School in Mansfield School District, then spread to neighboring Davis Elementary and Howard Middle schools in the fall and to Summit High School by fall 2012.
To this paragraph from an article that appeared in the Mansfield News Mirror days before:
The Arabic studies program, funded by a federal five-year $1.3 million Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant, was to begin this semester at Cross Timbers, then spread to Davis Elementary and Howard Middle Schools in the fall and to Summit High school by the fall of 2012.
But sometimes the martial artist gets so bored writing his political column that he plagiarizes himself. The first half of his February 28 column on communist teachers indoctrinating our children (setting aside the truth of that assertion) appears to be new material. But the second half is lifted entirely from the chapter "Calling All Millenials!" in his 2008New York Times bestselling book Black Belt Patriotism .
Starting at "There's something the U.S. government and unions don't want you to know," Norris copy-and-pasted six straight paragraphs from his book, changing around a few words along the way to try to protect himself, we guess. But then a seventh paragraph is announced as an excerpt from the book. Not only is Norris dumb enough to plagiarize, he's consistently dumb enough to point to just exactly where he's lifting material.
We really think Chuck Norris should give up his ridiculously bad op-eds and stick to stuff like this:
Or, kicking. He's good at kicking, at least!
I used to have that look
AT AGE 6 WHEN I DRESSED AS A BUM FOR HALLOWEEN
Is there such a thing as spray-on-beard?
Lemme think 2008...... yeah I'd say a good majority of my male high school students were pretty obsessed with Chuck Norris. I could see them or their parents buying that book.