Man, he should really change his answers in his interviews.

Well another hack is at it again. First Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair, now a novelist admits to plagiarizing, by “accident” of course.

According to an Associated Press story (Young Author Admits Borrowing Passages), Harvard University sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan’s hyped up novel has many instances of borrowed passages and blatant copying:

Kaavya Viswanathan’s “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,” published in March by Little, Brown and Company, was the first of a two-book deal reportedly worth six figures. But on Sunday, the Harvard Crimson cited seven passages in Viswanathan’s book that closely resemble the style and language of the novels of Megan McCafferty.

The Harvard Crimson reports on the similiarities from her book and two books by Megan F. McCafferty Sloppy Firsts (2001) and Second Helpings (2003):

At one point, Opal Mehta contains a 14-word passage that appears verbatim in McCafferty’s book Sloppy Firsts.

In that example, McCafferty writes on page 6 of her first novel: Sabrina was the brainy Angel. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: Pretty or smart. Guess which one I got. You’ll see where it’s gotten me.

Viswanathan writes on page 39 of her novel: Moneypenny was the brainy female character. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: smart or pretty. I had long resigned myself to category one, and as long as it got me to Harvard, I was happy. Except, it hadn’t gotten me to Harvard. Clearly, it was time to switch to category two.

Page 237 of McCafferty’s first novel reads: Finally, four major department stores and 170 specialty shops later, we were done. Similarly, Viswanathan wrote on page 51 of her novel: Five department stores, and 170 specialty shops later, I was sick of listening to her hum along to Alicia Keys….

…

The parallels between Viswanathan’s novel and McCafferty’s second work are equally striking. For instance, page 67 of Second Helpings reads: …but in a truly sadomasochistic dieting gesture, they chose to buy their Diet Cokes at Cinnabon.

And Viswanathan writes on page 46 of Opal Mehta: In a truly masochistic gesture, they had decided to buy Diet Cokes from Mrs. Fields…

Many more examples of similiar passages can be found here.

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner pointed out?on ABC’s “This Week” that the emphasis should be on securing the borders and enforcing the laws: “Until we do that, if you try to create a guest-worker program, all you’re doing is inviting more illegal immigration.” Indeed, it is like putting the cart before the horse to allow any illegal immigrants to stay here illegally, which would only encourage more criminals to sneak?into the United?States illegally (an illegal immigrant is by definition a criminal, since they are breaking the law to sneak into a country). And they are here illegally, no matter what the mainstream media will try to deceive the public with. For example, the Washington Post calls the extremist pro-illegal immigrant groups “immigrant rights groups,” such as this article from the Washington Post:

a measure that has prompted nationwide protests from immigrant rights groups

But let’s not let sanity and common sense into this debate, I mean, when we have racist, pro-criminal loonies standing up for criminals. Securing the border should be priority number one. Then we should decide whether or not to have a guest worker program.

A blog by a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist from the Los Angeles Times has been suspended due to ethical violations.? Apparently he defended his own columns and posts with pseudonyms like “mikekoshi.” Patterico, the Los Angeles blogger and county prosecutor found this out by noting that the IP addresses of Hiltzik and “mikekoshi” were the same. Read more about it.

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post reports

The paper said in an online editor’s note that Michael Hiltzik, a Pulitzer Prize winner who writes the Golden State column, had admitted posting remarks on both his Times blog and on other Web sites under names other than his own. The Times said it is investigating the matter. Editor Dean Baquet declined comment, and Hiltzik said he could not comment.

It’s one thing to write under a pseudonym, but another thing to deceive readers by defending your column with fake personas. Hiltzik should have just commented on the posts himself, under his own name.