Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Plagiarized (Kinda) by The Guardian

I like The Guardian. I'm not a Brit, but I read The Guardian. Just by chance, this morning I bumped into a Guardian post about Patrick Swayze. And hip hop. Hmmm.... Granted, I don't have a copyright or a monopoly on all Patrick Swayze/hip hop posts, but still.... Do you think I was plagiarized? Check it out:

Patrick Swayze: Hip Hop Icon [Hip Hop Is Read]

How Patrick Swayze got his break in hip-hop [The Guardian]

Admittedly, the post does contain a hyperlink directing to HHIR. I still call bullshit though. Even The Guardian's comment section notes: "Well plagiarised [sic] from [Hip Hop Is Read]... You have a great knack for the copy and paste, I am sure you will go far."

Update: There are a couple things I find hilarious about this post. First of all, the site's profile for the author ("author"?), Sam Richards, makes it clear that he posts roughly two articles per month. Jeez! If I was writing for The Guardian, I'm pretty sure I'd have plenty of time to come up with an original post every other week. Second, this line from the article made me chuckle: "Hip-hop historians believe that it was originally a reference to Patrick Swayze's titular role in the film Ghost...". Let's start from the end and work our way back to the beginning here. Of course it was a reference to the film Ghost. Do you really need a "hip-hop historian" to tell you that? And let's even dissect that: "hip-hop historian". Who is he talking about? Me? Who are these "hip-hop historians" he speaks of? Did he interview "hip-hop historians"? If so, why aren't they cited? Again, I call bullshit! Who's with me?