Since the article you presented us with postulates that the "ultimate
explanation [of the Enron story]  was "the societal collapse of standards
and morality over the last three decades or so "....I am mystified why it
also includes the erroneous and mis-leading reference  to this collapse as
indicative of Post-Clinton Standards ?

How about Post-Nixon Standards or Post-J. Edgar Hoover Standards ?

Clinton did not commit any high crimes or misdemeanors in office,
regardless of the rabid efforts of his political opponents to tar him with
their own sins. I would remind you the Republicans are the ones with the
appallingly high record of self-serving impeachable offenses, which they
weasled out of  with last minute Presidential pardons.

I feel these home truths should be mentioned in light of the spin associated
with the article you have "gifted" us with.

In Texas, we have a slightly different "take" on the Enron situation. It's
quite evident who the senior management was in bed with politically ...
and it wasn't Clinton.

Since this post will no doubt result in my receiving another Elizabeth
Roderick gag order, I don't expect to be able to engage in further
discussion.

~malinda jones
Proud 2nd cousin 8 times removed of George Washington




----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard E. Dixon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 5:39 PM
Subject: Understanding Plagiarism


This editorial from the Wall Stret Journal raises the issue that a more
wider
 cultural breakdown is at the heart of the recent revelations of plagiarism.

Post-Clinton Standards
Academics as well as accountants should be accountable.

BY ROBERT L. BARTLEY
Monday, March 18, 2002 12:01 a.m.

When the Enron story was breaking back in January, I wrote here that the
ultimate explanation was "the societal collapse of standards and morality
over the last three decades or so. As a society we seem increasingly
incapable of sitting in judgment of each other." With the indictment and
probable demise of Arthur Andersen LLP, perhaps it's a good time to check up
on standards in the rest of society, in particular its supposedly
high-minded
quarters.

The Archdiocese of Boston, one example. Its pedophile coverup problems
forced
it to agree to a huge monetary settlement. An editorial in the official
newspaper of the archdiocese, the Pilot, even discusses the possibility that
celibacy accentuates the incidence of scandal, and also homosexuality, in
the
priesthood. The archdiocese is backing away from this challenge to church
doctrine, but the issue has been broached. Back in the Protestant
Reformation
critics found celibacy unrealistic and unnatural.

Across town we have the matter of the Harvard Business Review, a scoop for
James Bandler of our Boston bureau. Review Editor Suzy Wetlaufer resigned
over being romantically involved with an interview subject, super-CEO Jack
Welch. Mr. Welch and his wife are now negotiating for a divorce. This is bad
news for all involved, plus female journalists everywhere, often unjustly
accused of dalliance to ingratiate themselves with sources.

Doris Kearns Goodwin has been rather harshly punished, it seems to me, over
some instances of plagiarism found in her books. She was exiled from PBS's
"NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" and disinvited as a commencement speaker at the
University of Delaware. She owned up to the misdeed, as did Stephen Ambrose,
who escaped more lightly. Part of the reaction is surely moved by jealousy
at
their popular success; unlike cases below, there is no suspicion they
invented their facts.

By contrast, seven federal and state wildlife biologists submitted forged
samples to a survey to determine the range of the Canadian lynx, protected
under the Endangered Species Act. They doctored samples with hair from
captive lynx, and when discovered claimed that they were concocting a test
of
lab procedures. Western congressmen charge that they intended to create an
excuse for further restrictions on use of and access to the forests.
Similarly, a National Academy of Sciences panel found "no sound scientific
basis" for the Bureau of Reclamation decision to cut off irrigation water to
farmers in Oregon's Klamath basin to preserve water for suckerfish, which
were designated for the endangered species list in 1988.

In the groves of academe, meanwhile, Mount Holyoke College suspended history
professor Joseph J. Ellis over fictionalizing his personal biography. Mr.
Ellis won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his books
on the founding fathers and Thomas Jefferson. But he repeatedly regaled
students with his exploits in Vietnam, until the Boston Globe reported that
in his military career he never left the East Coast.
Prof. Ellis was also point man in claiming that new DNA evidence proved
rumors that President Jefferson was father of at least one child by his
slave
Sally Hemings. He took to the pages of U.S. News & World Report to tie
alleged Jefferson misdeeds with the impeachment of President Clinton. But a
later review by a dozen illustrious historians found the DNA evidence proves
no such thing.

Instead it proves that the last Hemings child was likely fathered by "one of
the two dozen Jefferson males in Virginia at the time," according to the
head
of the panel, Robert F. Turner of the University of Virginia. The most
likely
candidate is the president's younger brother Randolph, known to have spent
nights with slaves and to have been invited to Monticello days before the
likely conception date of the young child.

After serving a year of what Mount Holyoke's president described as
"reflection and repair," Prof. Ellis will be back on campus in the fall. He
has apparently already been fully vindicated in the eyes of the New York
Times Book Review, where he recently was invited to appraise James S.
Simon's
new book on Jefferson and John Marshall.

Then there is Emory University's Michael Bellesiles, who won the prestigious
Bancroft Prize for his "The Arming of America: The Origins of a National Gun
Culture." Contrary to myth, he argues, guns were rare in colonial America;
the "gun culture" did not arise until after the Civil War.

When others sought to use his references, Mr. Bellesiles came up with a
series of explanations that would do Jeffrey Skilling proud. His records,
for
example, had been ruined in a flood. Material destroyed in the 1906 San
Francisco earthquake were actually in the Contra Costa County Historical
Society, he said, except that they weren't there either, and the staff said
it couldn't confirm he'd ever been there.

In the current William and Mary Quarterly, Mr. Bellesiles continues to
defend
his hypothesis, which comes under withering fire from three other historians
expert in probate records, military matters and the history of violence. But
he only glancingly deals with the inability to replicate his evidence. Emory
has launched an official investigation.





On whether we have experienced a general erosion of standards, I think I can
rest my case. Human nature, of course, remains a constant over time and
across fields of endeavor. What matters is accountability, that is, whether
we as a society are willing to sit in judgment on each other. And perhaps
the
anecdotes above in fact suggest that in this post-Clinton era we're making
some progress; at least the issues are coming to light and creating some
agony in church, government and universities.
Businessmen, indeed, may be ahead of the rest in accountability. Aside from
the draconian treatment of Andersen, last week's Business World by Holman
Jenkins presented a rather amazing list of criminal charges for the likes of
accounting abuse. Businessmen do not enjoy anything like civil-service
status
or academic tenure, privileges that carry an immunity from accountability.

Yet who knows, a mood may be stirring. If Catholic Church intellectuals can
broach celibacy, perhaps it's even conceivable that academics will start to
think about the downside of tenure.
Mr. Bartley is editor of The Wall Street Journal. His column appears Mondays
in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com.


Copyright © 2002 Dow Jones & Company

____________________________________________________________________

Richard E. Dixon
12106 Beaver Creek Road
Clifton, VA 12104-2115
703-830-8177
fax 703-691-0978
______________________________________________________________________

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