Is the WSJ guilty of plagiarism?

Dylan Byers and Hadas Gold of Politico write about allegations of plagiarism levied by Daniel Flynn, a conservative author and columnist, against The Wall Street Journal.

Byers and Gold write, “What followed was a battle between Flynn and the Journal that ultimately resulted in Flynn publicly accusing the Journal and author Max Boot — a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and the Los Angeles Times — of plagiarism. In a column for The American Spectator published Friday, Flynn claimed that Boot’s article “freeloaded” the “research, structure, and ideas” from his work.

“Boot and representatives from the Journal deny that charge, and both Boot and his research assistant say they had no knowledge of Flynn or his work until they received inquiries from POLITICO. This was simply an instance of two writers with a similar viewpoint on an issue marshaling the limited set of facts and arguments available to make their case, Boot said.

“In an email on Thursday night, Boot threatened to take legal action against POLITICO if it printed Flynn’s ‘scurrilous and unsubstantiated allegations.’

“The entire episode, as outlined in extensive email correspondence and notes provided to POLITICO by both Flynn and Boot, offers a unique window into a very complicated fight that has left both parties feeling unfairly treated by the other side. It also sheds some light on how editors at the Journal handle the process of freelance submissions.”