Ben Carson, Likely GOP Presidential Candidate And Plagiarist

Ben Carson, author of at least a half-dozen books and a likely GOP 2016 presidential candidate, has been exposed as a plagiarist.

Buzzfeed has discovered that long portions in Dr. Ben Carson‘s 2012 book, America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great, have been plagiarized. 

In one of several examples, more than 150 words were copied verbatim from the conservative website socialismsucks.net, which is no longer online. 

In another, over 50 words were copied from The Five Thousand Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen. 

And in yet another example, Buzzfeed writes that in “another section of The Five Thousand Year Leap … Carson takes two sections from Skousen, rearranges the words slightly, plagiarizes and paraphrases, and takes Skousen’s footnotes.”

Carson even plagiarized from “a May 2011 Liberty Institute press release,” along with a local newspaper, a CBS news report, and from Bill Federer‘s book, America’s God and Country.

Buzzfeed does note that “In many cases Carson cites the works that he plagiarizes in endnotes, though he makes no effort to indicate that not just the source, but the words themselves, had been taken from different authors.”

Ironically, Buzzfeed reports, “In Carson’s book, he writes about being caught plagiarizing in college and being given the chance to rewrite the paper after it was discovered.”

In 2013, Carson, now retired as the Johns-Hopkins director of pediatric neurosurgery, said that white liberals are “the most racist people there are.” That followed earlier comments he made that year, effectively equating gay people with “people who believe in bestiality,” and “NAMBLA.”

Carson, whose anti-gay, anti-choice, and anti-Obamacare attacks made him a Tea Party and religious right hero, has made clear he is actively working toward running for president as a GOP candidate.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr