GoldbergBlog

Plagiarized!

So apparently, there’s this guy named Tom Perkins and he has his own little video blog called FilmXTRA.  He got busted for ripping lines from reviews of other people wrote (read Tyler Foster’s amazing coverage over at The Following Preview).  But let’s stop right there–

I’ve never heard  of anyone plagiarizing an opinion.  Plagiarizing fiction?  Sure.  Plagiarizing research?  Of course.  But an opinion? Everyone has an opinion.  It’s even a saying, and not an expression, but a statement of fact. Sadly, it appears that Mr. Perkins was born without the ability to have his own opinions and thus had to take them from others.

Now, I suppose you could argue that he took the opinions of others so he could provide “reviews” of movies he hadn’t actually seen.  But one of the reviews he took was my review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  I watched the video before he took it down and here’s the line he grabbed from me:

Autobots Skids and Mudflap are two of the most racist caricatures to come along in mainstream cinema in quite some time and nothing can really prepare you for how they embrace the stereotype of young, under-educated, superficial African-American males.

So part of a negative review, correct?  Nope.  This was a line in his four-star review.  Having other people point out a flaw or strength of a film is fine and it’s part of a healthy post-film discussion.  You don’t have to quote that discussion because you were an active participant in it.  If he wanted to say the Twins were racist, why pull a quote from my review?  And not to come off as arrogant, but that wasn’t even the catchy part of the paragraph:

But of all the “humor”, the most non-spectacle element that would garner the most controversy (I say “would” because I imagine there are those people who are patting themselves on the back for shutting off their brains) are “The Twins”. Autobots Skids and Mudflap are two of the most racist caricatures to come along in mainstream cinema in quite some time and nothing can really prepare you for how they embrace the stereotype of young, under-educated, superficial African-American males. I almost wanted to call the NAACP in the middle of the movie to let them know. And I’m not a PC-guy. But when you see characters that are more racist than the crows from Dumbo, a film that came out before desegregation, then you have to take note. Oh, and just to make it even better, their voice actor is a white guy. You’re welcome, Race Relations.

I don’t condone plagiarism.  I never will.  There’s just no reason for it.  There’s no shame in reading someone else’s opinion and crediting them for it.  It makes you come off as a well-read and honorable person.  But I can’t help but laugh that of all the reviews out there, someone chose to plagiarize mine.  In all fairness, that was the only review of mine from which he stole so I guess he figured it wasn’t a well worth returning to.

While I’m not happy that Mr. Perkins took credit for a line of my review, I must also thank him for bemusing me with his actions.

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