Michael Moore, in his Christmas Message to his readers, cited a quote by William Rivers Pitt who is best known to the world as one of the perpetrators, along with Jason Leopold and Marc Ash of TruthOut, of the journalistic hoax that Karl Rove had been indicted on May 12, 2006. Here is Moore quoting Pitt who is quoting without attribution Douglas Adams in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy":
Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas (or a Merry Everything) and hope you are all well today.
Here's a good thought from the writer William Rivers Pitt:
"Before Santa and presents and shopping and all the attendant Christmas (stuff) got involved, this holiday was enshrined to commemorate a guy who got nailed to a tree for daring to tell people to be kind to one another. If you have two cloaks, He said, give one away. Remember those who have less than you, be charitable, be good, be merciful."
Hear, hear.
One "small" problem...Pitt never credited Douglas Adams in the piece cited by Moore. Here is the Douglas Adams quote that Pitt lifted:
...nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change...
And how do we know that Pitt intentionally lifted that quote from Adams? Because Pitt himself admitted as much but only AFTER he was called on it in the Democratic Underground thread he posted to let everyone there know that Moore was quoting him when he was really quoting Douglas Adams. Here is a DUer "ruining" the party by calling Pitt on his plagiarism:
Mister Douglass Adams Would like to have a word with you for plagiarizing his word, if he wasn't dead. For shame, Mister Pitt. For shame.
Pitt then attempts to laugh it off but does admit that he stole the quote:
Good eye.
"Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright." - Sam Seborn
I ain't great, but I definitely nabbed the line.
Thank you for that admission, Will, AFTER you got caught in the act. Although William Rivers Pitt has been condemned to political purgatory following the exposure his Karl Rove indictment hoax, there is still a small opening for him that might be available...on the staff of Joe Biden.
You can read more detail on the latest antics of William Rivers Pitt involving plagiarism at the DUmmie FUnnies.
