Discredited Charges Should Not Be Repeated
The Crimson apparently believes that
plagiarism is so serious a charge that even absolute innocence is not a defense
(News, “Prof Admits to Misusing Source,” Sept. 27). It continues to mention the
phony plagiarism charges leveled against me by an anti-Israel zealot.
Even my biased accuser
acknowledged that there was not a single phrase, sentence or idea in my book
that came from someone else without being quoted and cited. His gripe was that
in a handful of instances I cited the quotations to their original sources
rather than to the secondary source he falsely claims I found them all in. That
is why Professor James Freedman, the former President of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and of Dartmouth and the University of Iowa, came to the
following conclusion:
“I do not understand
[Finkelstein’s] charge of plagiarism against Alan Dershowitz. There is no claim
that Dershowitz used the words of other without attribution. When he uses the
words of others, he quotes them properly and generally cites them to the
original sources (Mark Twain, Palestine Royal Commission, etc.) [Finkelstein’s]
complaint is that instead he should have cited them to the secondary source, in
which Dershowitz may have come upon them. But as the Chicago Manual of Style
emphasizes:
‘Importance of attribution. With
all reuse of others’ materials, it is important to identify the original as the
source. This not only bolsters the claims of fair use, it also helps avoid any
accusation of plagiarism.’
This is precisely what
Dershowitz did. Moreover, many of the sources quoted both by Dershowitz and
Peters are commonly quoted in discussions of this period of Palestinian
history. Nor can it be said that Dershowitz used Peters’ ideas without
attribution. He cites Peters seven times in the early chapter of his book,
while making clear that he does not necessarily accept her conclusions. This is
simply not plagiarism, under any reasonable definition of that word.”
(Note: I actually cited Peters
eight times.)
Recycling old discredited
charges of plagiarism only encourages politically motivated people to level
these charges, because they understand—as Senator Joseph McCarthy did—that once
made, certain charges stick even when they have absolutely no basis in fact.
ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ
September 27
The writer is Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School.