Harvard's Claudine Gay has resigned as president of the university amid her plagiarism scandal. But the media has already started to spin this story, accusing conservatives of targeting ... plagiarism. CNN even tried to claim that Claudine Gay didn't REALLY plagiarize. So, Glenn and Stu consult the dictionary for the truth. Plus, Glenn has gained exclusive access to Claudine Gay's REAL resignation letter ... which is 100% plagiarism free!
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: There's a couple of things going on, that I thought we should cover.
First of all, Claudine Gaye's resignation from Harvard.
STU: Kind of a big deal. Racism wins again.
GLENN: Kind of a big deal.
STU: Unbelievable.
GLENN: I think it was CNN reporting, plagiarism is the conservative's new target.
That we've all decided, we have to go after plagiarism. Yeah. That's what we have to do.
STU: You know what is hard to do. Successfully prosecuted case, on plagiarism. When there isn't plagiarism.
Really difficult to do. You almost can't do it, I would say.
But I believe it was also CNN who said, it wasn't plagiarism. It was just using someone else's words without attribution. And that's totally different than plagiarism.
GLENN: Can you play that, please?
VOICE: These plagiarism allegations where Claudine Gaye has had to issue corrections of multiple corrections.
Now, we should note that Claudine Gaye has not been accused of stealing anyone's ideas in her writings.
She's been accused of sort of more of copying other people's writings. So it's been more loppy attribution than stealing anyone's ideas. Oh!
Okay.
STU: Gosh, we are -- you know what, it has to be the racism, that made us think, that that's what plagiarism was. My impression, as a white person.
Taken for what it's worth.
GLENN: It not worth very much.
STU: Not worth very much. Somewhere racist. He hates black people. He hates homosexuals.
STU: I don't know what that necessarily has to do with that particular conversation.
GLENN: I just want to make sure that people understand where you're coming from.
Hatemonger.
STU: Right. So I thought taking other people's word without attribution. Was plagiarism.
I thought that that's what it was.
GLENN: I thought that would be a dictionary definition.
STU: That's a great question.
Let's see. Plagiarism. The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
GLENN: Huh. Huh.
STU: Now, he said, to be fair, it wasn't ideas.
GLENN: No.
STU: But how would one delineate, whether you took someone's ideas, if you didn't attribute their authorship of these words.
GLENN: Sure. This has how would one know, if you took ideas.
GLENN: I really -- don't words just define ideas?
STU: That's a function of what they do.
GLENN: I mean, unless we're playing Pictionary. I think that that defines an idea. Your words.
So...
STU: That's a fascinating.
GLENN: He's gone. He's gone. We lost her. We host her.
STU: We did.
GLENN: Now, I don't know if you read the resignation letter. It's fascinating what she said. She blamed everything on racism, et cetera, et cetera. Let me just read her -- what?
STU: We should point -- can we stop for a moment here?
Of course, he immediately went to racism and blamed racism. Again, let me go dictionary definition. Could there possible possibly be a better example of something can't be racist?
The reason I bring this up, is because the big hearing we all watched, were three people, not one.
Two of them were white. The first person who lost their job was white. So how could it possibly be racism? If the second person out of three, happened to be black?
GLENN: Because the first person was black in spirit. Okay?
STU: I see that.
GLENN: Again, your whiteness, just blocks you.
Yeah. All right. So this is what she wrote. Friends and Ivy League citizenships.
In all the decisions I've had to make in my academic life. I've always had to do what was best for Harvard.
Throughout the long and difficult period of these past few months. I felt it was my duty to preserve, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office, to which I was appointed.
In the past few days, however, it's become evident to me. I no longer have a strong enough pace in the academic community, to justify continuing that effort. I've never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as president, I must put the interest of Harvard first.
However, I want to make one thing clear.
I'm not a crook.
I repeat, I did not have plagiaristic relations with that paper. Instead, I only had a dream.
A dream where Harvard students would one day live in a nation, where they would be judged by the color of their -- not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.
But today is not that day. Instead, I've been subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus. But when evil men plot, good men must plan.
When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Because darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. And it's during our darkest moments, that we must focus to see the light.
So let us hold the truths to be self-evident, that all university presidents are created equal. And they're endowed by their boards with certain unalienable rights.
Among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But don't judge me by my success. Judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again. Because life truly is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you will get. And at first, if you don't succeed. Try, try again. And, you know, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
And with these words, I'm resigning as President of Harvard. But don't cry for me, Argentina. Don't cry because it's over.
Smile because it happened. My tenure as Harvard's first black president was one small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind. When the two roads diverged in a wood, I took the one less traveled by. And that's made all the difference. So ask not what your university can do for you, ask what you can do for your university.
Because life moves pretty fast, and if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. So here's looking at you, kid. And, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. So...
STU: That was actually really well written. I didn't expect that from her.
GLENN: Yeah. All her original ideas.
STU: Right. It may have been some words that were used. But not ideas. Just some attribution.
I was saying it was very well done. Very well written.
Had almost like an anthem feel.
Like, I've heard this before. But you haven't. It's the first time.
That's what that felt like.
GLENN: Well, she's a great writer.
She's a great writer. And we're going to miss her a great deal.
STU: Don't miss her too much.
She has a 9,000-dollar job.
And we should go into this. This is the best thing that will ever happen to her.
GLENN: Oh, no, no, no.
She will be laundered, and become more powerful.
STU: More powerful. She will have multi six-figure jobs handed to her for no work. Board seats she will never have to show up for.
She will become a multi, multi millionaire and do nothing for it for the rest of her right after with no risk of her losing her job. This will be the west thing that ever happened to her.
GLENN: Well, I personally think she should become president of Simon & Schuster. I do. I do.
STU: It will give her a lot of ammunition for speeches.
GLENN: It would be really good. Really good.
