Zac Hall Plagiarist?

[Chinahand]

Newsnight has presented evidence that Zac Hall has plagiarized a substantial proportion of his speech in the Chris Robertshaw - Equality Bill Debate

 

Link1

Link2

 

This is an important topic in its own right and so to bring it to greater attention I thought it would be a good idea for it to have a thread all of its own.

 

I wonder, if this is true, if he will have the courage to admit his behaviour and apologise for it?

[newsnight]

http://www.tynwald.org.im/business/committee/kmms/Pages/default.aspx

 

(3) consider and report upon any matter that may from time to time be referred to the Committee by the House, or by a Member, which relates to the conduct of a Member;

[Uhtred]

Hall is a shyster and a fool...is anyone surprised at this plagiarism revelation? (Though good work for exposing it). He's a nobody who crept into Keys virtually unnoticed on the coat-tails of Mr. Onchan himself the Duke of Karran. Since arriving Hall has mumbled and bumbled, launched incoherent attacks on the NHS (presumably to curry favour with the charming Kate) waffled through a few second readings and then trotted off to fly to and from LCY ceaselessly, pick up his Eastern Airways/BA salary and thumb his nose at the voters of Onchan. After September he'll be able to fly even more frequently.

[the stinking enigma]

for what its worth, here's my thoughts on the matter...

Why Plagiarism is Wrong

Most instructors agree that plagiarism is wrong, but here are some reasons why plagiarism is considered unethical.

Penn State University is an institution of both learning and research. When you commit plagiarism, you hurt yourself and the community in the following ways:

1. You deny yourself the opportunity to learn and practice skills that may be needed in your future careers. You also deny yourself to opportunity to receive honest feedback on how to improve your skills and performance.
2. You invite future employers and faculty to question your integrity and performance in general.
3. You commit fraud on faculty who are evaluating your work.
4. You deprive another author due credit for his or her work.
5. You show disrespect for your peers who have done their own work.

Previous: Defining Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

Next: Common Excuses for Plagiarism

• Table of Contents

having said that, is it not possible the church is briefing its disciples on what and what not to say?

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[joebean]

This is really good work newsnight. Of course hearing Zac Hall speak these words did immediately prompt the question "where did that come from?" It was obvious that it did not come from his own head.

 

If Hall had stood up in the House and made a speech in which he quoted from another text, and made it clear he was doing so, his words would have had less credibility but more honesty. What he has, in fact done is to make a speech which he attempted to present as his own issues of conscience when all he was actually doing was mouthing Catholic text. I am not sure whether this breaks any rules and I am equally unsure whether our political establishment has the courage or sense to do anything about it. I am sure that his speech lacked the honesty and integrity we should expect and demand from our politicians. But many of them have already failed in that respect and achieved re-election.. We get what we deserve, I suppose. Onchan deserves Zac Hall, currently.

[newsnight]

The Catholic Church briefs certain of its disciples on what to say especially when those disciples happen to be elected representatives. They do it through the various Catholic organisations that have been set up for the purpose of promulgation of Catholic dogma and or instructions from the Vatican on specific topics. Anti-gay efforts by the Catholic Church has been exposed and they habitually like to hide behind others who present the Church's official line as though it was not directly linked.

 

It matters not if Hall thought that he was simple cutting and pasting from the official Catholic publication, he went into the House of Keys and did not say, the following is verbatim from an official Catholic Church source and that is....he quite deliberately misrepresented the views he was expressing as his own.

 

The anti-gay lobby includes "The Christian Institute" which publishes instructions containing what to say, who to say it to, and what to do to obfuscate and deceive as to facts.

 

What the IOM has just seen in the conduct of Zac Hall is an elected representative who has quite deliberately misrepresented that the views he was expressing are not his own and he did that to achieve a political objective that has been set by a foreign sovereign state, the Catholic Church. I think I will not be the only who holds that to be absolutely disgraceful behavour and for which he should be reported to the Standards Committe.

[alibaba]

His election to the HOK did come at the expense of Adrian Earnshaw, so he's not all bad.

[Tweek]

He's not the only one. I found all the words Allan Bell used in his recent 'State of the nation' address in a Dictionary. Cheats!

 

Is it really plagiarism on the part of Zac Hall? At the end of the day it's just the key phrases of a religious dogma he's repeating.

[Vulgarian]

FWIW in my view plagiarism isn't always wrong, and isn't always really plagiarism. It's important to consider context and genre. Plagiarism is often thought of as akin to fraud because there is often some kind of financial involvement, and it comes down to a matter of intellectual copyright. If you're selling books that are comprised of other people's work or selling music that you took without credit; something that someone else ought to be reaping the profits of, not you.

 

But adaptation and borrowing are core to many genres: parody, joke telling, debate (using an argument or line of reasoning created by someone else because you agree with it and it suits your purposes). In some genres certain things are considered by default to be public domain and free to use. Sometimes its impractical to credit an author.

 

I think what Mr Hall is doing falls somewhere between the two. He's not selling his speeches. His quotation from Catholic Church websites doesn't detract from the ability of the Catholic church to sell anything. In the genre of political speeches it is quite common to borrow and steal arguments, wordings, turns of phrase from various sources. Nobody is losing out from this.

[Chinahand]

He's also copied extensively from this article as well as the others already identified:

 

http://irishcatholic.ie/article/same-sex-marriage-debate-7

[Chinahand]

@Vulgarian, I think Mr Hall should have at the very least acknowledged his debt to the Catholic Church in Eire for informing his opinion on the matter!

 

The fact that he was informed to such an extent that a large proportion of his speech was simply cut and paste from Catholic sources which he read verbatim means he was not presenting the Court with his considered views, but rather agreeing with, and presenting, another's.

 

There is a difference between these two things and he should have acknowledged he was doing the latter, and not the former.

[oldmanxfella]

Poor Zak, he looks more like Lex Luthor with the passing of time. I never had him down as a 'bums against the wall boys' kind of guy though. It makes you wonder who he's trying to impress with his hard line Catholic plagiarism. I never had him down as a left footer.

[Uhtred]

I do have him down as a slippery little twat however.

[quilp]

Without wanting to trawl the thread, has this sensation reached the hallowed ground of farcebook yet?

[alibaba]

Dunno, but the idiot Corrin will no doubt be posting about it as if he'd figured it out himself, and then TJ will post something too. And then they'll all jump around rubbing themselves in delight at their freedom from MF.