Plagiarism No Bar to Top Speechwriting Job

Posted on January 7, 2005

Apparently, plagiarism charges just aren't that damaging anymore. The Herald Tribune reports that Florida Governor Jeb Bush has hired Lloyd Brown, 65. Brown was forced to resign his position as editorial page editor of the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union in November after he was found to have been engaging in plagiarism in his editorials. The story was blown wide open in a Folio Weekly article entitled "Porn, Hypocrisy, Plagiarism: The Dark Side of Jacksonville's Daily," written by Billee Bussard. Bussard's article said that Brown spent his days watching porn on the Internet and having phone sex. Now, the erstwhile plagiarizer and falafel-lover is pulling down $80k writing speeches, letters to the editor and other material for Governor Bush. Since Governor Bush is busy in Southeast Asia viewing the devastation of the Tsunami, my guess is that he doesn't know anything about the hire, and that when he gets back heads will roll. Or, maybe Jeb is the forgiving type. In any event, he better proof read those speeches before he reads them in public.