Alan Dershowitz and the Identical Errors Issue

Here's a link to the latest CounterPunch Special Report, which offers a detailed analysis of the charges of plagiarism leveled against Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz by Norman Finkelstein. In his discussion of this ongoing debate, Frank J. Menetrez shows how Dershowitz is both desperately trying to avoid discussing the detailed evidence against him and has deliberately misrepresented the issues as presented by Finkelstein. This is a fascinating issue, which has still managed to stay under the radar of the mainstream media, that I've been tracking for a couple of years now since I find what Dershowitz has managed to get away with to be truly outrageous. Even though this latest article is rather lengthy, it actually serves as a rather useful summary of this ongoing and heavily documented saga. Due to this, I strongly recommend reading it since it not only cuts to the chase and focuses on the real issues, but also provides some perspective on what's really at stake in all of this:

The Case Against Alan Dershowitz
Plagiarism, Cover Up and Misrepresentations
By Frank J. Menetrez
CounterPunch.org - February 11, 2008

As the article points out, what lies at the heart of the case against Alan Dershowitz is the "identical errors argument"—which is why he has not only continually avoided discussing it, but deliberately misrepresented Finkelstein's case in order keep attention away from it. Upon looking at the evidence, Dershowitz's desperation is understandable, since he could be in some real hot water if Harvard ever initiated a forthright and detailed investigation. As Frank J. Menetrez states, "If Harvard never investigated the identical errors issue and Dershowitz has always known that, and if I am also right that Finkelstein's charge concerning the Twain quote is sound, then Dershowitz has committed academic misconduct on several levels." These "several levels" are then expounded upon. Once these are considered, along with the rest of the evidence that the article puts forward, I think any honest person should be outraged and frustrated by the fact that "No honest and competent investigation by Harvard would have held Dershowitz to a lower standard than Harvard sets for its freshmen." So what are they waiting for?

Well it seems that for awhile Dershowitz had them duped, but the article in question might just be one more step towards waking the Harvard University administration from their stupor. As Menetrez explains, "Dershowitz's characterizations of the dispute are demonstrably incorrect. The identical errors argument, which lies at the heart of Finkelstein's case, shows that the plagiarism charge is not a technical matter about citation style or about the definition of plagiarism. Rather, it is factual dispute about whether Dershowitz copied primary source material directly from Peters without citing Peters and without checking the primary source himself. Again, Dershowitz has known this since the fall of 2003. It thus appears that Dershowitz's strategy from the start has been to pretend that this factual dispute does not exist and to hope that no one will notice." Ouch!

And keep in mind, that this isn't just a petty squabble between a couple of Ivory Tower academics, since there are looming questions concerning not only ethics and the long-term reputation of one of the most respected universities in the world, but academic freedom as well. As Menetrez puts it, "this is not just between Harvard and Dershowitz, or between Dershowitz and Finkelstein. Rather, Harvard has a moral obligation to Finkelstein to acknowledge, at a bare minimum, that it has never completely cleared Dershowitz of Finkelstein's plagiarism charges, because it has never rejected Finkelstein's argument concerning the identical errors"—so don't let Dershowitz's smoke screen fool you.

We've blogged on The Dershowitz Hoax and related topics quite a few times before ([1][2][3][4][5][6]), so hopefully this latest post will server as a good synopsis for those who don't have the time to read Norman Finkelstein's entire book Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History and the whole host of articles on this topic. However, if you have time, take a few minutes and watch these videos, since they provide ample evidence on just how pathetic Alan Dershowitz really is.

Deen on...