Report: Three Pages of Rand Paul's Book Were Plagiarized
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is facing another accusation of plagiarism.
According to BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski, a whole section of Paul's book Government Bullies was copied from a 2003 Heritage Foundation case study. The case study is reportedly cited in the book's footnotes, but there is no indication or acknowledgement that the same words from the study were taken and used in the text of the book.
A spokesman from The Heritage Foundation told BuzzFeed that they "don't care" about the copying.
From BuzzFeed:
An entire section of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's 2013 book Government Bullies was copied wholesale from a 2003 case study by the Heritage Foundation, BuzzFeed has learned. The copied section, 1,318 words, is by far the most significant instance reported so far of Paul borrowing language from other published material.
The new cut-and-paste job follows reports by BuzzFeed, Politico, and MSNBC that Paul had plagiarized speeches either from Wikipedia or news reports. The book was published in August 2013 by Center Street, a division of Hachette Book Group.
The news comes days after Paul was accused of plagiarizing from the Wikipedia entry on the sci-fi film Gattaca during a speech at Liberty University. Reason's Ron Bailey wrote on the controversy surrounding the Liberty University speech here.
Paul has dismissed questions surrounding his speech and has accused MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who pointed out some of the similarities between sections of Paul's speech and the Gattaca Wikipedia article, of "spreading hate on me for three years now."
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