(Rep. Richard) Hanna’s op-ed piece similar to blog’s

Source: auburn pub

Did Rep. Richard Hanna plagiarize a portion of a recent op-ed? His office and a research fellow who says he assisted Hanna with the op-ed piece say no.

In an op-ed published Sunday in the Syracuse Post-Standard, Hanna explained his vote against extending Patriot Act provisions that were set to expire at the end of this month.

The op-ed included three paragraphs explaining the provisions set to expire that closely resemble passages written Feb. 9 by Julian Sanchez on “Cato @ Liberty,” the blog of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

...

Sanchez, a Cato Institute research fellow, said in an e-mail Tuesday that he is “not at all bothered” by Hanna using nearly the same words in his piece. In fact, Sanchez said Hanna’s office sought his help.

“I sent Rep. Hanna’s office the same summary of the three expiring provisions that I sent to a number of congressional offices who had asked for clarification of the central issues in the Patriot renewal debate,” Sanchez said. “They asked permission to adapt that summary for an op-ed, and showed me a draft of the language they’d planned to submit. There are, frankly, only so many ways to paraphrase the issues with those three provisions anyway.”

Read more: http://auburnpub.com/news/local/article_7dc8fd84-3f02-11e0-9b2f-001cc4c03286.html

~ Bill Shakespeare