Driving Miss Lazy

McArdle today, on a Vanity Fair piece by David Margolick:

Amazing, disturbing piece on the Little Rock nine from Vanity fair. The sadness of that girl's subsequent life, in stark contrast to the usual story we get--music swelling to a crescendo as the nine march past the guards, and then fade to black--is awful to bear. [Emphasis added]

Margolick, from "Through a Lens, Darkly:"

In all the documentaries over the years, it is invariably at this moment, when Elizabeth and the other eight ascend Central's stately stairs and walk through its grand wooden doors,that the music swells and the credits begin to roll: the story is over.

McArdle liked Margolick's cinematic image, stole it and performed a piddling rewrite to make it her own. What manner of lazy mind plagiarizes someone else's work and then directs readers to the scene of the crime? Did she honestly believe that the link to the VF article was attribution enough?

What a dope.

Update: McArdle continues to bring out the best in her readership:

When will the supporters of integration apologize to those white children who have been physically harmed as a result? [...] When will they bow their heads at the sight of white people enduring ever longer commutes in order to enable their children to attend schools that have not yet been destroyed by mobs of unruly black savages?

And:

Unlike Megan who went to an upscale high school where the Blacks were probably motivated and cooperative, I went to a school with real Blacks. Let me assure you they did more than their share to drag the entire school down to their level.

Updated Update: Huh. McArdle hasn't deleted the racist trolls. Must've been a Nyquil Friday. Oh well, I had a Letters to the Editor Saturday:

To the Editors,

Please be aware that in a recent post by Megan McArdle ("A Picture and a Thousand Words," September 28, 2007), Ms. McArdle appears to plagiarize a portion of a recent Vanity Fair essay by David Margolick.

McArdle: "Amazing, disturbing piece on the Little Rock nine from Vanity fair. The sadness of that girl's subsequent life, in stark contrast to the usual story we get--music swelling to a crescendo as the nine march past the guards, and then fade to black--is awful to bear."

Margolick: "In all the documentaries over the years, it is invariably at this moment, when Elizabeth and the other eight ascend Central's stately stairs and walk through its grand wooden doors,that the music swells and the credits begin to roll: the story is over.

I do not believe that Ms. McArdle's link to Margolick's essay constitues sufficient attribution, and her superficial rewrite of the original phrasing suggests an attempt to efface authorship. Bottom line: there is no good excuse for Ms. McArdle's failure to properly quote another author's formulation.

I hope that the editors will encourage Ms. McArdle to follow standard editorial practices.

Sincerely,
Adam Clem

Hey, you never know.