WhIle some might call it plagiarism others, like BeachGrit, regard the "cut-and-paste" technique as the sharpest tool a writer has in his belt.
Yesterday, the fearless, tireless, and wildly inspirational Harvard president Claudine Gay was forced to resign after a witch hunt headed by “racist mobs.”
It seems the racists, the dang Jews and the white supremacists wanting to slaughter the sacred DEI calf went after Claudine Gay, the first black president of Harvard, when she was wishy-washy on whether or not calling for the mass-killing of Jews by students would violate the school’s conduct policy.
Claudine Gay had told a Congressional hearing that talk of Jew-killin’, well, it wasn’t automatically bad. It depended, she said, on the context.
The subsequent calls for her resignation were, said the Rev. Al Sharpton, “an attack on every Black woman in this country who’s put a crack in the glass ceiling”. It was an “assault on the health, strength, and future of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
“Racist mobs won’t stop until they topple all Black people from positions of power and influence who are not reinforcing the structure of racism,” award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi, who used to be plain ol Henry Rogers, wrote in his typically flamboyant style.
And, so, when it was revealed Claudine Gay was an active user of cut and paste in her work, oowee, the pile-on began.
The screws got real tight until finally Gay quit and she was given a less prestigious role within the university, although she did get to keep her 900k salary.
But while some might call Claudine Gay a plagiarist others, like BeachGrit, regard the technique as the sharpest tool a writer has in his belt. It is a labour-saving device where the writer (or keyboard operator) is able to process material and get it published long before any cube-worker gets around to crafting his own version.
BeachGrit, of course, is the pioneer of this labour-lite version of journalism, cleverly transferring acres of text from other sources into our own stories.
It ain’t as easy as it sounds.
First, the operator must use his mouse pad to bold the text he wishes to steal.
Then, he must hold down the command button, which is identified by the looped square symbol, and depress the c button. This copies the selected text.
Finally, this text, which is stored somewhere in the computer’s memory, is transported to a new page and, here, the operator holds down the looped square button and the v button.
Only now do we have our presto moment as the text magically reappears.
Sharp-eyed readers and those with a few neurons still firing will often get that deja vu jolt as they scroll through a BeachGrit story, entire passages, sometimes entire stories, recreated using the magic of the cut and paste combination of buttons.
Of course, it ain’t easy being in the cut-and-paste surf aggregating biz as writers for Surfer magazine have found to their peril, shocking readers with multiple missteps and grievous errors.
Following the purchase of Surfer by The Arena Group, a “tech-powered media company…that creates robust digital destinations that delight consumers with powerful journalism” a series of unforgivable errors have turned the once best and oldest surf mag in the world into a “bastion of kook.”
Vale Claudine Gay.
