Timothy Noah: too little, too late on "Meet the Press"?

On Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008, Timothy Noah of Slate observed of plagiarist Doris Kearns Goodwin discussing plagiarism on Meet the Press (on Feb. 24):

Unbelievably, Russert failed to note (and Goodwin failed to remind him of) an important source of Goodwin's expertise on this topic: (...)

IPBiz had noted this irony on February 24: Russert lapses on "Meet the Press" on 24 Feb 08

Noah had text from Goodwin: They've all picked up language from one another. They're like an old couple that begins to look like each other at the end of their lives, and they've, they've probably listened to their colleagues on the debating trail more than they have their wives or their spouses. So in some ways it's good for the party to have the best lines that everybody in that party comes up with, the best ideas and patterns. (...) It's inevitable that those patterns are going to get in their heads. And you know, we can't make too much of this. This is the spoken word. It's different from the written word, and it becomes part of what's in there. As you said, there's not that much in their heads anymore that's coming in that's new. So all that's in there is what was there before.

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See also signsonsandiego:

But Russert's loyalty to people with tarred pasts also extends to academic pals. I just got around to watching Sunday's "Meet the Press" last night and was flabbergasted to see that Russert had historian Doris Kearns Goodwin as his main commentator on the Obama-Clinton "plagiarism" flap.

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On Feb. 26, Hillary mentioned Saturday Night Live (of Feb. 23) and suggested the press was coddling Obama.