Wash Times Casts Paul Adrift Over Plagiarized Column

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The Washington Times is discontinuing Sen. Rand Paul's (R.-Ky.) weekly column after BuzzFeed reported that his Sept. 20  Times column lifted passages from a Dan Stewart article in The Week without attribution, the Gawker.com Web site reports.

The Times' decision to end the column that Paul began writing last summer is the sour cherry atop a melted sundae of a week for the 50-year-old Republican and Tea Party fave who was elected to the Senate in 2010. Last week, Politico and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC alleged that speeches given by Paul have plagiarized a variety of sources, including Associated Press articles and Wikipedia pages for the films Stand and Deliver and Gattaca, Additionally, BuzzFeed claims Paul's book, Government Bullies, cribbed from a 2003 Heritage Foundation study without attribution.

Confronted with these embarrassing missteps, Sen. Paul stepped up to the plate and blamed his staff. Still, it seems as if Paul, an opthalmologist, doctors his written work as well.

Did Crossfire Newt Cross CNN Disclosure Rules?

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The quartet of co-hosts of CNN-resurrected Crossfire (see "TUOL" post 6/27/13) have barely had time to settle into full-throated shouting at one another, and already former House Speaker and perpetual presidential candidate Newt Gingrich may be headed for a woodshed spanking, Politico reports.

According to a report by the decidedly not impartial liberal watchdog Media Matters for America, Gingrich seems to have run afoul of standards and practices set by CNN ("Crossfire? No! No!") by allegedly not disclosing political contributions made by him or a PAC in which he is involved to candidates who appear on, or are the subject of discussion on the program. CNN didn't respond to Politico's request for comment.

Mother Jones magazine claims Gingrich's PAC recently has sweetened the respective pots of Sen. Rand Paul (R.-Ky.), a Crossfire guest, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R.-Tex.), a topic of discussion on the gabfest, without Gingrich acknowledging either contribution on-air.

Much ado about nothing and "gotcha" journalism, "TUOL" unabashedly concedes. It is refreshing, however, to write about a Gingrich gaffe that doesn't involve lunar colonies or isn't serial marriage-related.