October 27, 2009, 05:00 PM ET

I Swear I've Heard This Speech Before

Q: Washington and Lee University needs someone to speak at its Journalism Ethics Institute on November 6. Whom does it invite?

(a) Tom Brokaw, the retired anchor of NBC Nightly News.

(b) Ted Koppel, the retired anchor of ABC News Nightline.

(c) Jayson Blair, the reporter who resigned in disgrace from The New York Times after being caught fabricating and plagiarizing the news.

(d) The ghost of Walter Cronkite.

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Comments

1. 22113683 - October 28, 2009 at 09:05 am

Or (e) Joe Lieberman, the former Senator and now V.P. who became famous for speeches "borrowed" from others, such as British politicians.

Actually, (c) would not be a bad choice. As I understand it, he has at least admitted to what he did, whereas (a), (b), and (I suppose) (d) are still in denial--completely unrepentant, and therefore could be expected to say nothing useful about journalistic ethics.

2. whizzkid43 - October 28, 2009 at 11:20 am

That was Joe Biden who was caught with his hand in the speech cookie jar, not Leiberman. He stole words from Robert Kennedy and British politicians back when he was running for to be the Democratic nominee for President in the late 80's.

3. gharbisonne - October 28, 2009 at 09:49 pm

Biden also plagiarized a law school paper, which didn't prevent him from finishing near the bottom of his class.

And then, of course, there's MLK, in whose name we celebrate an academic holiday.

4. scottcatledge - October 31, 2009 at 12:22 am

MLK was innocent; MLK Jr was the adulterer and plagiarist.