FW from Erwin Chemerinsky re: Tribe

[RJLipkin at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/29/2004 1:23:13 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
VOLOKH at law.ucla.edu writes:

Naturally opinion magazines will
spend more of their time and effort  exposing the problems in the work of
those with whom they disagree than of  those with whom they agree.  So?
That, for better or worse, is the  nature of opinion magazines; and
they're still doing a service by exposing  the problems, and if the Left
exposes the Right's errors and the Right  exposes the Left's, the result
is still more problems exposed and, as here,  corrected.  
 
        Why is it "in the nature  of" and opinion magazines to expose 
plagiarism-related issues of anyone at  all? Opinion magazines, as I understand their 
function, should engage in  opinion: "Tribes' constitutionalism is harmful," 
"President Bush's war is  morally required," and so forth. Reporting on (and 
charging) plagiarism is not  paradigmatically opinion if it is opinion in any 
significant and interesting  sense at all. If that's true, and generally 
speaking, what justifies the remark  (not quoted above) that "these writers [in 
opinion magazines] "have
no  obligation to be evenhanded."  Surely, they have no constitutional or 
legal  obligation, but these are not the only possible obligations. 
Evenhandedness  seems to be a journalistic obligation, and in my world, a fundamental  
moral obligation.  Thus, I'm not sure I can identify  what kind of 'mistake' it is 
to lash out against these watchers on the  grounds that they're somehow not 
evenhanded." Criticizing bad faith or hypocrisy  in these matters for anyone 
believing in evenhandedness on moral grounds (and  probably journalistic grounds 
also) seems far from a mistake; rather such  criticism seems morally required.
 
        For me at least, it would  be helpful for Eugene to indicate just 
what he means by 'mistake' in this  context. I would think it fairly obvious 
that, in general,  if an opinion  magazine (or anyone for that matter) enters the 
arena of plagiarism watching, it  does have an obligation to be evenhanded. So 
Eugene's explanation here would be  helpful.

Bobby


Robert Justin Lipkin
Professor of  Law
Widener University School of  Law
Delaware
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