Yesterday the staff at the Sean Hannity Show stated that:

"The media seems to have a case of selective outrage when it comes to the alleged plagiarism of a speech by Michelle Obama by Melania Trump."
,,,,,,,,
http://www.hannity.com/articles/election-493995/flashback-joe-biden-busted-for-plagiarism-14922724/


Indeed?
As an example of this "selective outrage" they cite the case of Joe Biden.
While running for President in 1987 Joe Biden, on at least three occasions used lines from a speech by British politician Neal Kinnock. (On two of those occasions he cited Kinnock as a source). On another he failed to. Hannity states
"Despite his transgressions, Biden has served two terms as Vice-President with barley a mention of the incidents from the mainstream media".

 Ignore for a moment the fact that at Hannity.com they don't know difference between "barley" and "barely"  Let's examine Joe's transgression.

Barely a mention? Hmmm.

As noted in Wikipedia,

"Major controversy beset Biden's candidacy, beginning on September 12, 1987 with high-profile articles in The New York Times and The Des Moines Register.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_presidential_campaign,_1988#cite_note-19][19][/url] Biden was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, leader of the British Labour Party.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_presidential_campaign,_1988#cite_note-nyt-echo-20][20]"
,,,,,,,,,
"[/url]Following the Kinnock attention, reports came from the San Jose Mercury News of Biden giving a February 3, 1987, speech to the California Democratic Party that reused without credit passages from a 1967 speech by Robert F. Kennedy,"
,,,,,,,,

"The Kinnock and academic revelations were magnified by the limited amount of other news about the nomination race at the time,[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_presidential_campaign,_1988#cite_note-36][36][/url] when most of the public were not yet paying attention to any of the campaigns; Biden thus fell into what Washington Post writer Paul Taylor described as that year's trend, a "trial by media ordeal".[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_presidential_campaign,_1988#cite_note-37]["
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,[/url]

"Biden withdrew from the nomination race on September 23, 1987, saying his candidacy had been overrun by "the exaggerated shadow" of his past mistakes".



So, if Biden's plagiarism was reported by numerous news agencies, was dwelled upon to the point where one writer called it "trial by media ordeal", and he was driven from the race,,,,,,,,,,
How on earth does the reaction to Melania Trump constitute "Selective outrage"?

I lived through that time. I followed politics. Believe me, it was a huge deal.
Sean Hannity gets it wrong.
Selective outrage?
More like selective memory .






* After Biden withdrew from the race, it was learned that he had indeed correctly credited Kinnock on other occasions. But in the Iowa speech that was recorded and distributed to reporters (with a parallel video of Kinnock) by aides to Michael Dukakis, the eventual nominee, he failed to do so) Wikipedia

Last edited by Goose (7/20/2016 9:22 am)