Friday, November 27, 2009

Did Hollywood Today Plagiarize American Power on Tareq Salahi's Palestinian Ties?

Look, the New York Times first broke the news that Tareq Salahi, the White House gate-crasher now under investigation for the massive state dinner security breach, had ties to Palestinian rights organization, ATFP.

After I saw that, I looked into it, and published my report, "
Tareq Salahi, Gate-Crasher at White House State Dinner, Tied to ATFP, America-Bashing Palestinian Group Calling for Power-Sharing With Hamas!"

Jules Crittenden linked to the piece last night at his snarky entry, "O Presidency Shark Jumped." And Ruby Slippers, also citing my post, emphasizes the potentially catastrophic nature of Salehi's intrusion in "It's Not Easy to be a Reality Show Star these Days."

So folks might understand my peeve at this entry from Hollywood Today, "
Palestinian Organization Tied to White House Gate Crashers, Hollywood Today Confirms."

Okay, sure, sounds good. But where'd Hollywood Today "confirm" Salahi's ties to ATFP? From my blog? The Hollywood Today author, Jeffrey Jolson, doesn't indicate a personal interview with any of the sources cited at the piece. But the giveaway is the cut-and-paste prose
at Jolson's essay:

The couple that crashed a State Dinner at the White House had ties to the American Task Force on Palestine, Hollywood Today has confirmed.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who may have been there posing as a team from Bravo TV, (the husband-wife team has been auditioning for a role on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Washington D.C.”), so Bravo should either hire them as resourceful, or more likely turn over all correspondence to the Secret Service under threat of abetting potential terrorists and revoking Bravo’s FCC license – if the network was involved in the set-up.

The way it works, according to former White House press aide Edward Lozzi, is that the White House sets up the guest list well in advance. The Secret Service then vets the individuals. It is not a rock concert, you can’t sneak a peek at the guest list and use someone’s name or slip in a backdoor.

Already, various Arab groups are making the Salahis heroes of the anti-U.S. or anti-Israeli causes on the Internet.

So why were the Salahis allowed on the list? True, the Palestinian organization they both have ties to, the American Task Force on Palestine, claims only the most peaceful intents – so maybe the couple was invited by someone in the White House who believes this. We do not dispute AFTPs insistence of peaceful goals without proof one way or another, yet in the recent past, the AFTP has been accused of America-bashing and promoting power-sharing with self-acknowledged terror group HAMAS.

So why is Tareq’s image on the ATFP webpage gone, as are most references to him and his wife? They are scuttling even faster than Bravo to distance themselves from what they may figure is a time bomb. The ATFP picture shows Tareq as a board member of their group a week ago. He has been deleted now.
Did Jolson speak to Lozzi directly? It's not clear. But no matter. The phrases "America-bashing" and "power-sharing" at Hollywood Today are almost surely drawn from my post, "Tareq Salahi, Gate-Crasher at White House State Dinner, Tied to ATFP, America-Bashing Palestinian Group Calling for Power-Sharing With Hamas!" Note this passage at my conclusion:

In addition, and ominously, it turns out that Tareq Salahi, the polo-playing intruder, is a Palestinian nationalist with ties to the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) , a pro-Palestine lobby demanding the "right of return" for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants. The "right of return" has long been considered the backdoor to Israel's destruction. But not only that: ATFP President Ziad Asali is an America-basher who blamed 9/11 on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Asali was a lead U.S. official to PLO terrorist Yassir Arafat's funeral in 2004. And in a position paper in 2007, the ATFP called for a power-sharing agreement at the Palestinian Authority, which would have included the State Department's designated-terrorist group, Hamas.
And, a few minutes after publishing I updated the post to indicate that ATFP had dropped Salahi's picture from their website, and I linked to an essay at KABOBfest, "Tarek Salahi: Coolest Arab of the Moment."

That's all it takes, a quick link to serve as a citation for your sources. Even near-verbatim paraphrasing is cool as long as you link back to your source as a courtesy.

Hollywood Today has not done so, however. And not just to my essay, but to KABOBfest's as well, which includes the screencap of ATFP's website with Tareq Salahi's picture on it prior to the gate-crashing incident:

Norms for citation are obviously lax on the net, and folks snag a lot of graphic material, pictures and stuff, under reasonable claims of fair use.

But Hollywood Today is passing off online investigative research into THE SIGNIFICANCE of Salahi's Palestinian ties as its own. And that's what bugs me. I'm just another blogger out there, but when I dig up and analyze a good bit of information, whether a big deal in the end or not, I wish to be credited, at the least.


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UPDATE: Linked at the Astute Bloggers, "TAREQ AND BARACK: BWAHAHAHAHA!" Plus, Three Bears Later links to my initial entry on Salahi's Palestinian ties. See, "Obama Party Crasher Anti-American Palestinian Activist!"

8 comments:

  1. U R GREAT!

    IT WOULD BEST IF THEY CITED YOU, BUT AT LEAST YOU GOT THE INFO INTO THE MSM.

    MORE PEOPLE WILL SEE IT.

    IT MATTERS.

    YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

    GOD BLESS YOU!

    KEEP FIGHTING, BABY!

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  2. And they say bloggers are not real journalists. pfffft

    The bloggers I respect always give credit where credit is due.

    Debbie
    Right Truth
    http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

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  3. Yeah but, you are one of those right-wing extremist hammer heads so, well, you know, no credit for you!

    GIVE 'EM HELL!

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  4. LOOKS LIKE A PLO BUDDY I THE INDIAN EMBASSY GOT THEM IN. ARUN SINGH.

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  5. Mr. Douglas,
    • Sorry to pop any perceptions, but I have never seen your site until you posted your libelous blog link on our site. There are 525 stories and sites associating the Salahis to the American Task Force on Palestine, including ATFP itself (the Salahis hosted and attended events for them, ATFP forgot to remove those repeated references to the couple). And yes the screenshot of the ATFP site (a public site) may have originated with Kabobfest, it was fairly widely disseminated by the time I was hunting up a photo at 3 a.m.
    • The copy was pure me, plus Lozzi and my senior editor, and nothing in there except the phrase "power-sharing" to liken it to your piece. The AFTP's head Ziad Asali, has put out a position paper calling for such. And he has been a U.S.-trasher and basher since he called 9/11 the fault of the Americans. But you know all this better than I.
    • Yes I did speak extensively with former White House aide Ed Lozzi. He was who put me on the story, though my mother worked at the White House too, so I know a bit about procedures there myself. Just talked to Ed a moment ago, and he is mad that his words of experience and insight should be sullied by the broad pen of your accusations -- likely in search of an angle to get your blog more attention. He is happy to put out a statement to that effect, and our libel attorney just saw it, and emailed to ask if I wanted to take steps. I said no, for the present.
    • By your reckoning, I might call AP or New York Times on plagiarism when they take a thought or line from my newspaper, or I from them. We have reciprocal agreements with legit sources here at Hollywood Today, though I always try to credit them if they have a quote I need, not just a media statement I already have or a thought. After all, I do not have a reporter in every city, while they do. They take things from Hollywood Today all the time, but big boys don't cry, we write another story.
    • Having said all that, I am writing a follow-up story on the Salahis tonight, and am happy to quote you in it (with full credit of course) -- maybe use that paragraph of yours that further outline Taraq Salahi's links to Palestinian causes. Is he really a Palestinian national? I did not know that. The Secret Service apparently did not vet him then, yes? That alone would have gotten him an armed escort at the State Dinner, even if we are promoting peace from all sides. And he would not have gotten to shake hands with President Obama. Sorry you were wrong about that too. He did get close to the President and the honorees. The White House has issued the photo to major media, HT included though we are small compared to the Times or Post.
    • I'm willing to go one better and invite you to do a guest column in Hollywood Today. After all, my only neo-conservatives (as you describe yourself on your blog) on our 40-member staff are the Music Editor and one of the sports writers. Go figure. I try to run a balanced newspaper and your writing would be appreciated.

    Jeffrey Jolson, Publisher & Editor-in-chief, Hollywood Today Newsmagazine

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  6. How did you respond to that? It sounds like an oportunity?

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  7. I still believe this was a publicity stunt by The White House or perhaps someone choosing to cause some kind of misinformation or turmoil. I believe this girl to be either a pawn or part of an Intelligence Agency... Could be friend or foe. I believe her husband is a scumbag and couldn't satisfy his would be wife in bed if he wanted too. Arab men have tiny...dongs. As for the both of them, they should be charged with Title 18 USC 1001, Trespassing and Conspiracy. Put them in prison.

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  8. I tried to contact Mr. Jolson but his Hollywood Today site lacks any contact links.

    This is what I wanted to let him know:

    The Salahi family is Palestinian. This is no secret.

    The son (Tareq) and the parents have been feuding for years over the parent's property. The parents established a winery which he, Tareq, attempted to take over. They have countersued each other.

    The Washington Post archives will document this for you.

    The wife and husband have been known for some time as social wannabees. Today's Washington Post has a long article about their charity, Land Rover America's Polo Cup, which bills itself as the world's largest and most prestigious such event, is essentially a fraud. It is being sued for over $500,000 by others it has stolen from.

    Most noteworthy, it is advertising that it will hold its next event on the National Mall, in Washington,
    DC, June, 2010.

    First the White House and now the....National Mall?

    Who the hell is vetting these people?

    Change you can believe in.

    Here is the link:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/01/AR2009120104654.html?sid=ST2009120104708

    Why is all of this being ignored?

    This is a national embarassment.

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