Margaret Wente: yesterday and today, yesterday and today


On Monday, The Globe and Mail reluctantly (and rather confusingly) acknowledged another little attribution problem in a column by Margaret Wente.  Below are sections from Tuesday’s (remarkably similar) column.  Questionsposed earlier apply; leaving aside the fact that readers are now being asked to fork over money for online content, would a student get away with this?

Yesterday:  The world needs more America, not less.

Today:  …the world needs more America, not less…

Yesterday:  Raghida Dergham, columnist for the Lebanese newspaper …"...leading from behind really becomes a problem...”

Today:  “Leading from behind really becomes a problem,” said one prominent Lebanese journalist…

Yesterday:  And so even though Syria has turned into a bloodbath, don’t expect Western intervention any time soon…Mr. Assad has already slaughtered 40,000 of his countrymen and there is no end in sight.

Today:  They are wringing their hands over Syria, where Bashar al-Assad (who was recently celebrated as an unusually enlightened dictator) has massacred 40,000 of his own people.

Yesterday:  The ultra-hawkish U.S. Senator John McCain said he feels “ashamed” that his country isn’t intervening more forcefully in Syria. Representatives of Syrian democracy groups say they feel “abandoned.”

Today:  John McCain, the hawkish U.S. senator, said he is “ashamed” that Washington hasn’t intervened. Syrian democracy groups said they feel abandoned. 

Yesterday:  Four years ago, no one foresaw the Arab Spring, or predicted that Islamism would be on the rise around the Middle East.

Today: Idealists around the world cheered on the Arab Spring and watched it blossom into the Great Islamist Awakening.

Yesterday:  As Peter MacKay, Canada’s Defence Minister, proclaimed, “There is a higher calling on democracies…”  In practice, though, the democracies are slashing their defence budgets.

Today:  NATO allies are also slashing defence budgets.  Peter MacKay, Canada’s Defence Minister, may talk nobly about the “higher calling” for countries such as ours.