The Katie Couric Plagiarism Scandal

RUSH: There’s a Drive-By Media scandal happening out there. Not many people making big whoopee over this in the Drive-By Media, but Katie Couric does these essays, ‘Katie Couric’s Notebook,’ and I guess these are on the website. I don’t think these are part of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric because I haven’t watched it since last September. (interruption) Good point: neither has anybody else. Anyway (laughing), the way these things happen is that she has a bunch of writers, and they have meetings, and talk about what would be a good topic, and the writers write these things for her, then… I don’t even if they’re video on her website or they’re video, or are they just text. Well, yeah, because we got the audio. Yeah, they are video. Right, there it is. Well, it turns out that this Katie Couric Notebook, this essay on libraries was practically 100% plagiarized from a writer at the Wall Street Journal. So CBS has fired the producer that did this, but they’re not naming him. This is the Katie Couric Notebook on libraries, and notice, she doesn’t write these. Notice how this starts.

COURIC: Hi, everyone. I still remember when I got my first library card browsing through the stacks for my favorite books. For kids today, the library is more removed from their lives. It’s a last ditch place to go if they need to find something out — of course if Google doesn’t turn it up first. Sure, children still like libraries but the books are not the draw. A recent study found kids use them more for DVDs, story hours, and computers than for checking out books. Many kids skip the library altogether and head straight to the store. Sales of children’s books rose 60% from 2002 to 2005. It’s an encouraging sign that kids value reading, but me tech-savvy kids never experience the joy of using the library shelves as a place to discover new worlds, and many students get to college clueless about the Dewey Decimal System. Your local library is still worth checking out — and, by the way, so are the books. That’s a page from my notebook. I’m Katie Couric, CBS News.

RUSH: Yip yip yip yip yip yip yahoo. ‘I still remember when I got my first liberry card I went to the library with such…’ She didn’t write it, a producer did, and totally plagiarized it. They’re going to be the rid of the guy. Apparently these are videos, and they run on local CBS affiliates. They don’t run on the network per se, and they don’t run on the show. (interruption) H.R. just said, ‘At least CBS is improving. They didn’t forge Katie Couric’s essay.’ (laughing) Good one! ‘At least they didn’t forge it.’ No, they just plagiarized it. They’re moving up in the world at CBS News, the Tiffany Network.

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RUSH: By the way, what do you bet, what do you bet that Katie Couric’s next book is called ‘It Takes a Village,’ and what do you bet that she goes on the Imus show to hawk it?

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