Conservative author and television personality Monica Crowley, whom Donald Trump has tapped for a top national security communications role, plagiarized large sections of her 2012 book, a CNN KFile review has found.
The review of Crowley’s June 2012 book, “What The (Bleep) Just Happened,” found upwards of 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including the copying with minor changes of news articles, other columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia. The New York Times bestseller, published by the HarperCollins imprint Broadside Books, contains no notes or bibliography.
Crowley did not return a request for comment. Multiple requests for comment by phone and email over the past two days to HarperCollins went unreturned.
Crowley, a syndicated radio host, columnist, and, until recently, a Fox News contributor, will serve as Trump’s senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council.
Trump’s transition team is standing by Crowley.
“Monica’s exceptional insight and thoughtful work on how to turn this country around is exactly why she will be serving in the Administration,” a statement from a transition spokesperson said. “HarperCollins—one of the largest and most respected publishers in the world—published her book which has become a national best-seller. Any attempt to discredit Monica is nothing more than a politically motivated attack that seeks to distract from the real issues facing this country.”
In the book, Crowley lifted an entire section on Keynesian economics from the IAC-owned website Investopedia.
What the (bleep) just happened to American standards? Why isn’t Crowley reminding her acceptance? Is there no end to irregularities in the resumes of the Trump appointees? From Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn calling Islam a “vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people” that has to be “excised”” during an August speech to Monica Crowley being accused of plagiarism, to Trump’s own inappropriate remarks, many of us just feel that our country is rapidly becoming a laughing-stock amongst nations.
Is it necessary to always scrape the bottom of the barrel for presidential appointments? Additionally, Trump’s own wife plagiarized one of Michelle Obama’s speeches from 2008. I doubt if Mrs. Trump has the political knowledge to know she was plagiarizing. I expect she was just a victim of incompetence, which isn’t really all that reassuring.
As much as I would like to stick my head in the sand, I believe it behooves all of us to keep a careful watch on all these people. They are displaying character defects that simply should not be present in those who will be our leaders.
American standards were irreversibly lowered when plagiarist Joe Biden was chosen by Obama to be his Vice Presidential running mate.
Obama himself was guilty of using without attribution the words of Deval Patrick.
@Kelly_3406
Ah…the old “but someone else did id also” has been used for years.
Actually I am more concerned about election interference and rubbing elbows with a killer like Putin than I am about stealing someone else’s words. Those are the things that are causing sleeplessness.
I’m not sure what the deal is with this kind of news. No one of substance ever takes someone like Monica Crowley seriously in any event. So what if she lifts swatches of stuff from other places? No one would even know who she is if she didn’t fit the Ailes-ian physical-type. Plagiarism is a fairly puny issue compared to everything else we now face.
The President-elect is a TV celebrity and commercial real estate developer. Why would we expect him to make A-list picks for his cabinet or associated staff? I suppose someone might respond that we expect it because he is the President of what, until very recently, was universally regarded as the greatest country on earth. But he has very little relevant knowledge of his own to bring to the party and knows very little about the United States, its laws, history, or traditions. We chose him knowing these things and shouldn’t be surprised if we get a lot of Fox News back-benchers, gazillionaires with no government experience, and the types of fringe loonies who attached themselves to this guy early in the process. It was a choice that will really test the strength of the constitutional system. But it was our choice and we need to live with it. If we come out of it alive (in every sense), we will be even more reverent about the wisdom of the Founders that any of us were prior to this experiment.
In the meantime, we have to hope that there will be enough quality in these selections that a network of constructive, adult advice will form around the man to protect him and us from his manifest shortcomings. So far, things are not particularly encouraging. The internal White House appointments are already a steaming mess for Trump. He’ll have to find lifeguards in the outer layers of government. I do hear that General Mattis is pushing back forcefully against populating DOD with loonies. That’s something, I suppose. We’ll soon see how astute Mr. Tillerson is and whether he similarly will insist on competence. My guess is that at Exxon, he came to expect that the people around him knew what they were doing and talking about. The appointment of the Ambassador to Israel before the Secretary of State was even on board is scary, particularly when one sees the views of that particular appointment.
It’s going to be a wild ride, folks.
@Scout
It’s going to be a terrifying ride, Scout. I am awake most nights for about 4 hours on average.
I have to say, WE didn’t elect Trump. I am not sure who did.
The fact that the Russians tampered with and meddled in our elections to me makes the situation scarier and it makes the entire presidency illegitimate at this stage of the game, in my opinion.
I seriously question if many of us will live through his presidency.
@MoonHowler
You are being played.
Those of us who know something about Russia (which excludes Obama) know that it has continually undermined US institutions for decades. We knew it when Obama attempted a re-set with Russia in 2009 despite the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008. We knew it when Obama told Medvedev in 2012 that he would have more flexibility after the 2012 election. We knew it when Obama ridiculed Romney for Cold War thinking in the 2012 debates. We knew it when Russia hacked the White House in 2015.
Now all of a sudden Obama is concerned about the Russian threat to US institutions? How convenient.
We know that the Russians attempted to hack the Republican National Committee but was unsuccessful. What would have happened if the RNC were successfully hacked with damaging information released, but the DNC was not? If Hillary had won in that case, would the election have been called illegitimate? I doubt it.
@Kelly_3406
Kelly – how do we know the RNC was not successfully hacked?
@Pat.Herve
The RNC stated that it was not hacked.
Trust me – they do not know if they were hacked or are being hacked right now. All they can say – is that they do not think they are being hacked. Any organization that says “Number one, the RNC was not hacked,” (Reince Priebus) has a foolish understanding of how hacking occurs.
@Pat.Herve
Certainly it would have been more accurate to say there was NO EVIDENCE of a hacking.
Reading between the lines, there must have been no malware detected on the RNC system. A reputable security company should have found similar malware on the RNC system if the same hacking/phishing scheme had successfully been conducted against the Republicans.
Yea, how do they know they weren’t hacked? I am betting they were…it was just not advantageous to their goals to release the info.
@MoonHowler
Any evidence that the RNC was hacked would have been leaked to and splashed in the NYTimes. After the DNC compromise, I would imagine that the RNC contracted a security company to perform a search for malware on its computer network.
Remember that the compromise was not really a hack, but rather a phishing scheme. Podesta clicked an email link that exposed his system and thus the DNC to the malware.
These types of phishing schemes come to our computers all the time. With all the publicity about computer intrusions in the last five years, one would have to be an absolute idiot to click on such a link.
I don’t think it has been announced how the intrusions happened. Why would our people show their full hand of cards?
I am not buying it.
Why would the Russians show their hand by announcing that they had hacked the RNC? That seems counter-productive to me.
Finally, it seems like you are full steam ahead blaming the victim.
Our election process has been severely compromised by a foreign nation. A person with no government experience, who has never held an elected office will soon be running the show. This person has demonstrated emotional instability and behaves like an adolescent, tweeting his emotions to millions of people. You had better believe I am frightened.
@MoonHowler
I am indeed partially blaming the victim. It is like leaving valuables in plain view in an unlocked car and then wondering why you were robbed.
The Obama and McCain campaigns were hacked in 2008 by the Chinese. It was not in the Chinese best interest to release what it found. This time the Russians decided to embarass HRC — was the purpose to influence the election, to retaliate for a previous incident, or to undermine the future HRC administration? Who really knows?
This is now too politicized to take the intelligence assessment at face value. The report last week was put out by only three of our intel agencies. What do the other 14 intelligence agencies think? Do the NSA and DIA support these conclusions? Are there any dissenting views?
Russia always acts in its self interest. It should have been in the interest of Obama to take action in the past before it came to this.
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/06/18807056-chinese-hacked-obama-mccain-campaigns-took-internal-documents-officials-say
Blaming the victim is unfair, especially when we look at skill sets. I firmly believe everyone was “hacked.” Some of the info was released, some not. It depended on the objective of the Russians. I don’t think for one minute that the RNC escaped. I just think not displaying their stuff was to the advantage of the hacker.
Remember though, I am a left leaning moderate, not a Democrat.
@MoonHowler
It most certainly is known how the intrusion happened. Here is a description of the forensic analysis carried out by CrowdStrike.
https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/bears-midst-intrusion-democratic-national-committee/
Here is an article that describes it in less technical terms:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinmurnane/2016/10/21/how-john-podestas-emails-were-hacked-and-how-to-prevent-it-from-happening-to-you/#3c2b775d5c02
I have heard that there are other examples of tampering and meddling. I don’t think this was a single thrust.
This is not the first time she has been accused (caught) plagiarizing other people work. But what has she really done in her professional life to prepare herself for this position? Other than being Alan Colmes sister in law – she has not really done much.
@Pat.Herve
She has been a commentator on Faux News?
Meow. She was a very poor choice. I have heard her. She is just a snarky bitch in my opinion.
@MoonHowler
Sorry for getting off to topic. I agree that Monica Crowley is not a very good choice.
Many of his choices have simply been irresponsible as far as I am concerned. ex: Dept of Ed., Flynn, the list is endless it seems.
“From Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn calling Islam a “vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people” that has to be “excised”” during an August speech”
I agree with some of the things that you’re saying about these picks Moon but you may want to correct the above statement. Flynn did NOT refer to ‘Islam’ as a cancer in the speech you pointed out. He stated that “Islamism” is a vicious cancer.
There is a HUGE difference between the words Islam and Islamism. One is a religion and one is the militant side of that religion. Just sayin… words matter and you used the wrong word.
His exact quote from the speech: “This is Islamism, it is a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised.”
What you stated: Michael Flynn calling Islam a “vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people” that has to be “excised”” during an August speech
Do you see the difference? In his actual speech he is saying that the militancy of Islam is a cancer within the religion. In your description of his speech you’re saying that he said Islam itself is a cancer. Two completely different things entirely and a misrepresentation of what he was saying.
Do you think it is inside 1.7 billion people? That’s about how many Muslims there are in the world? It’s hard to separate the difference when he says its in each of them.
I don’t think a correction needs to happen at this point. maybe someone has to point out the difference to him.
Right… he is saying that the militancy within Islam is an issue. Not that Islam is an issue. Do you not think that militant Islam is an issue?
The correction needed is to use the actual word he used in the speech. He said:
“Islamism, it is a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised”
You, and many ‘news’ organizations replaced “Islamism” with “Islam”. There is a HUGE difference and is not accurate.
There is no difference in his mind if he says that this “cancer” is within the bodies of 1.7 billion people. He is saying it is in all Muslims. That’s just wrong.
Why are you defending this asshole?
@MoonHowler
Just one other point that I would like to make. As I said above, a foreign country hacked the 2008 presidential campaigns in 2008. Not a peep from Obama — he did not seem to care that a hostile country gained access to personal information, candidate opposition files, and campaign strategies of the presidential candidates.
The same thing happened in 2016 except this time the hostile country shared the hacked information with the American people. Only then was Obama up in arms about it.
That is a very sad statement that the president cares about computer security only if the hacked information is shared with the American people.
Obama wasn’t president in 2008. I don’t know how we can assume how he felt about it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/intelligence-chiefs-briefed-trump-and-obama-on-unconfirmed-claims-russia-has-compromising-information-on-president-elect/2017/01/10/9da3969e-d788-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html?tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&pushid=breaking-news_1484094463
What do you make of this report?
@MoonHowler
I can totally believe that the Russians obtained compromising information. Some of it was likely from the opposition research done by the DNC, which thus could have been downloaded by the Russians from the hacked DNC computer system..
Comey said today that there is no evidence that the Trump campaign and/or RNC were successfully hacked, so the compromising information did not come from them.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/no-evidence-trump-campaign-or-rnc-successfully-hacked-fbi-director/ar-BBy7S58
Some of you all are going to defend whatever the Republicans do with your last breath.
I just wish they had chosen better candidates.
@MoonHowler
More fake news that seems to be duping several ‘news’ outlets. It has been revealed that the “compromising information” was a made up story in a chat room by someone called 4Chan about how Trump had people piss on the bed that Obama slept in when he was in Russia. He then sent the story that he made up to hack Rick Wilson who then sent it to the CIA. The CIA apparently for some reason added the made up story to their intelligence briefing.
However, that isn’t stopping fake news organizations like MSNBC, NBC and CNN from reporting it as fact. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Russia has potentially compromising information on just about all of our leaders but this particular case isn’t one of them.
Actually, you are wrong. MSNBC did not air the story. They refused to. I have been watching all morning so I can verify that they did not air the story.
I don’t think you know what happened and didn’t happen. Enjoy spinning it, howlever.
@MoonHowler
I’m wrong? Then I suppose my lying eyes didn’t see your favorite MSNBC anchor reporting it live last night and then MSNBC posting it on their site today… 😉
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/unverified-trump-russia-blackmail-allegations-roil-us-politics-852191299993
MSNBC did not divulge the salacious contents of the report. That is what has people fired up.
Do you think the press ought to hide the fact that the intelligence community delivered these materials to both the president and the president elect?
Are you watching Rachel now?
@MoonHowler
Here is your favorite ‘news’ website reporting on the already debunked portion of this story that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen met with Russian officials in Prague last year. Just more ‘fake news’…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michael-cohen_us_5875e63ae4b05b7a465c804b
Here is the correction that the FakingtonPost has yet to post on their link to this fake news story… (giving Jake Tapper from CNN credit here) “government sources have already confirmed that a different Michael Cohen was in Prague”. The real Cohen was visiting colleges at the time with his son. Will check back with the FakingtonPost to see if they correct this link but don’t hold your breath.
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/11/nbc-intel-chiefs-did-not-brief-trump-on-supposed-compromising-material-saw-it-as-disinformation/
You are goading again. Why do you say that Huffington Post is my favorite website?
I rarely visit that site and I have no idea what they are saying or what you are saying. You are falling back onto old bad habits again.
@MoonHowler
Really?? You can’t be serious… the word “body” means within the overall body of Islam; not within the actual “bodies” of Muslims.
We can agree to disagree here but at least cite his actual words instead of inserting words and context he didn’t even say. This is what faux news looks like…
Who are the 1.7 billion he is speaking of?
This conversation is beginning to bore me. You are trying to defend an alt-right asshole. There is no defense for him or what he said.
Of course Islamic terrorism is a problem. So lets condemn all Muslims so that more of them hate us. NOT.
@MoonHowler
I would agree with you Moon if he had condemned all Muslims but he didn’t. You’re edit of his actual words (and you’re not alone, the site you pulled this from did the same thing) made it seem that way. This is what some may refer to as ‘fake news’ or ‘faux news’.
If you’re going to quote his words from his speech and use that as an example of him condemning all Muslims then at least use his actual words instead of selectively cherry picking words and adding in your own words to distort to context of what he said.
Again, what he actually said:
“This is Islamism, it is a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised.”
…meaning that the militancy of Islam is something that needs to be dealt with, not the overall religion itself.
The twisted version of what you’re claiming he said:
Michael Flynn calling Islam a “vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people” that has to be “excised”” during an August speech.
…nowhere did Flynn call Islam a vicious cancer. That is just made up ‘fake news’.
I am not going to debate this with you. I am also not going to approve any more comments on it. You choose to back an asshole. I do not. I can read.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/22/politics/kfile-michael-flynn-august-speech/
I understand you and I disagree. I find this asshole (Flynn) a very frightening person.