The Chronicle‘s “Houston Advocate” reporter (whatever that means) Cindy George wrote the following in a chron.com story today entitled “Feuding Protests on Westheimer,” referencing Quds Day:
The annual event was initiated by the Republic of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 to express solidarity with the Palestinian cause for freedom and oppose Israel’s control of Jerusalem.
Here is the Wikipedia entry on Quds Day (we’ve emphasized the parts that will look familiar):
Quds Day (Jerusalem Day, Quds is the city’s Arabic name), officially called International Quds Day (Persian: روز جهانی قدس ruz jahâni Quds) in Iran, is an annual event held on the last Friday of Ramadan that was initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 to express solidarity with the Palestinian people and oppose Zionism as well as Israel’s control of Jerusalem.
Apparently, the “Houston Advocate” sees nothing wrong with lifting full clauses and sentence structure from Wikipedia, with no attribution.
Of course, it’s not plagiarism by the standards of the horrible, largely unedited Houston Chronicle — when we caught former columnist Rick Casey engaged in far worse plagiarism years ago, diminutive editor Jeff Cohen ordered everyone to ignore it.
Hat tip to Matt Bramanti for spotting this latest transgression. He has an eagle eye for this sort of thing, unlike those who edit the area’s newspaper of record.
