ER - A second Gallegos column raises questions about attribution

A second Gallegos column raises questions about attribution

Another newspaper column bearing the name of District Attorney Paul Gallegos contains the words of another man — in this case, the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

The column, published as a “My Word” guest commentary in the Times-Standard on May 7, during Gallegos’ heated re-election campaign against Deputy District Attorney Worth Dikeman, contained numerous phrases closely resembling those used by Kennedy in a variety of writings and public addresses.

The discovery of this second incidence of apparent plagiarism occurred Wednesday, when phrases from Gallegos’ column were entered into Google, an Internet search engine.

In the initial search, a Web site called “Robert F. Kennedy The Dream Lives!” was found containing a collection of Kennedy quotes. A manual search of the quotes on that site revealed a series of similarities between Gallegos’ writings and quotes previously attributed to Kennedy.

Earlier this week, The Eureka Reporter learned that at least 10 sentences or parts of sentences in a Times-Standard column published Saturday under Gallegos’ name had appeared six years earlier in a scholarly paper called “The Ox-Box Incident,” written by Robert Louis Felix, professor emeritus of legal research at the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Gallegos said Wednesday that he did not intend to represent Felix’s work as his own. “It certainly wasn’t my intention to make direct quotes. Sometimes when you’re using things, you make use of an expression or a phrase,” he said.

While making the case for his re-election in May, Gallegos made use of a number of other expressions and phrases.

He wrote, “Whenever anyone’s life is taken by another unnecessarily — whether done in the name of the law or in defiance of it, by one person or by a group, in cold blood or in passion, in violence or in response to violence — our entire community is diminished.”

The statement is strikingly similar to one attributed to Kennedy: “Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily — whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence … the whole nation is degraded.”

On the subject of change in Humboldt County, Gallegos wrote in the “My Word” column, “While we can affect the character of that change, we cannot affect its inevitability.”

Forty years earlier, Kennedy spoke of revolution in similar terms: “We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”

In at least five other instances, phrases from Gallegos’ “My Word” column resemble or duplicate phrases previously attributed to Kennedy.

When informed of the second known occurrence of Gallegos’ apparent quotation without attribution, Lee Bowker, Ph.D., emeritus dean of Humboldt State University’s College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, said, “I don’t know if I could trust someone who was caught doing that twice. That’s not just as a professor, but as a citizen in this society. Because if you found him doing it twice, how many times did he do it and no one found out?”

As previously reported in The Eureka Reporter, Bowker said Wednesday that in academic circles, at least, plagiarism or the appearance thereof is considered a serious matter.

“The taking of even a single line from another source without attribution is plagiarism. That’s the academic standard. It’s an extremely serious offense.”

On Thursday, Bowker said a second instance was more serious still.

“Chances are, it’s a habit for him. That’s what I would conclude about any student who did that. What else can you conclude?”

When contacted Thursday for comment on similarities between his writing and Kennedy’s, Gallegos, who is currently prosecuting a murder trial, said he needed to put his job first and was unable to talk at that time.

***
Paul Gallegos
From “We’re on our way to justice for all”
Times-Standard
(May 7, 2006)

While I can run on my record, I cannot rest on it.

If we fail, our children will harvest the fruit of our indifference.

While we can affect the character of that change, we cannot affect its inevitability.

Change is coming to Humboldt County. It will be peaceful if we are wise enough, compassionate if we care enough, and just if we are committed enough… .

… a community… strong and flexible enough to meet the demands of all of its people…

…what we really mean when we say that all people are created free and are equal before the law…

Whenever anyone’s life is taken by another unnecessarily — whether done in the name of the law or in defiance of it, by one person or by a group, in cold blood or in passion, in violence or in response to violence — our entire community is diminished.

***
Robert F. Kennedy

“Robert F. Kennedy The Dream Lives!”
http://home.att.net/~jrhsc/rfk.html

We democrats can run on our record but we cannot rest on it.

If we fail to dare… the next generation will harvest the fruit of our indifference

We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.

A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough… .

…a society strong and flexible enough to meet the demands of all of its own people…

…what we really mean when we say that all people are created free and are equal before the law.

Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily —whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence… the whole nation is degraded.

by Heather Muller
9/8/2006
Copyright (C) 2005, The Eureka Reporter. All rights reserved.
***
RELATED STORIES:
THE OX-BOW INCIDENT by ROBERT LOUIS FELIX
a copy of THE OX-BOW INCIDENT in case the link goes down
TS - Paul Gallegos' My Word
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ER - A second Gallegos column raises questions about attribution