The Watchdogs have recently uncovered what we believe to be a shameless act of plagiarism by Republican hopeful Zach Wyatt. We were tipped off not by our own readers, who remain silent, (perhaps due to the sheer shock endured when one realizes that a political candidate would lie to get elected) but by a reader of the republican blog Winning with Wyatt.
SamSeaborn321informed us of an old posting on Show Me Progress which illustrates the extensive plagiarization of a speech on the popular television show The West Wing. Up until yesterday the blatant plagiarization was still viewable in all of its glory on Wyatt's own website www.electzachwyatt.com under his veterans section, however as of today his website appears to be down. Has Wyatt been made aware that The Watchdogs are on to him?
Wyatt must not be allowed to get away with this falsehood. In doing our part to bring greater clarification to this issue The Watchdogs will be asking Wyatt for an interview on the subject so that he may let Missouri know why he decided it was ok to copy work that's not his own. Will he spin and call it an egregious error committed by an aide, or will he, refreshingly, own up to his actions and apologize to all those involved?
The answers to these questions remain to be seen, however their implications will have no small impact on his now questionable political career. Rest assured, more on this issue is forthcoming.
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ReplyDeleteSorry about that last removed comment, the text somehow got jumbled and was unreadable, so I deleted it. This is what we wanted to say:
ReplyDeleteAs far as the text on Zach's website about Veteran's Issues goes, that text has been removed from the site. When we interviewed Zach he mentioned that he was not aware that the material was plagiarized. An old military colleague of Zach's offered to compose some of Zach's written stance on Veteran's Issues. When it was offered to Zach, he thought the text was very eloquent and portrayed his thoughts on the issue very well. Zach wasn't aware that the text had come from an episode of "The West Wing" that aired in 2002.
When you really look at it, it's not really a surprise to us that Zach didn't immediately recognize the wording from an obscure six-year-old episode of a TV show he never watched. It was an honest mistake, and when Zach was notified that the material was indeed not completely original, he removed it from his website. What more do you want, Sam? It was an honest mistake and the issue has been resolved.
There's no Sam here... What The Watchdogs would like is a formal apology on his website or on your blog. Something written by him, so that we can see that he's taking responsibility for his and his friend's mistake.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the date on the blog we referenced, then you'll see that evidence of plagiarization on his website has been out on the web since the beginning of August. One would hope Zach would write his own material or vette his sources. At the very least, he should have been looking at Missouri blogs to see what the citizens of the district he is running in think.
In conclusion, we would like to see Zach directly comment on this issue, either on his website or through some other medium.