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Professor: "I'd fail a student for doing what Taibbi did in Rolling Stone"

This week, the wannabe Hunter Thompson penned a mocking piece aimed at Michele Bachmann and her faith. Turns out, if this post is true, he lifted information “liberally” from another article about Bachmann written a few years ago without attribution.

Anyone who’s read the Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi already knows how predictable his work is (it's a true shame he writes in P.J. O'Rourke's old space).

This week, the wannabe Hunter Thompson penned a mocking piece aimed at Michele Bachmann and her faith. Turns out, if this post is true, he lifted information “liberally” from another article about Bachmann written a few years ago without attribution.

Here's the original author of the Bachmann story:

What I will say, as a graduate of the Columbia J-School, and an adjunct at the University of Minnesota J-School, I do know that if a student handed in a story with that particular lack of sourcing, not only would I give it an ‘F,’ I would probably put that student on academic fraud.

Read the piece and make up your own mind. Having worked at a newspaper for a number of years, I am certain this kind of unattributed work would have gotten someone fired. Taibbi will keep his job, naturally. Bachmann may not steal other people’s work, but she’s a silly, bible-thumping, flag-waving serial mother and that’s all that matters.

I know this point is getting old, but I feel compelled to mention that courageous rabble rousers like Taibbi rarely, if ever, have the spine to mock the world's most illiberal religious denomination or take on institutions valued by their peer group. Instead, Taibbi resiliently pounds at the toughest of targets: Sarah Palin or dying Popes. You may remember Taibbi’s classic "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope" a few years back.

Next up: An investigation into Evangelical summer camps.

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Follow @davidharsanyi

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