Ann Coulter's publisher and syndication group don't think she plagiarized

As I noted earlier, I am not surprised that Ann is vindicated. What evidence of the claims that I saw looked amazingly week. Remind me not to put too much faith in the computer programs that is used to supposedly identify plagarists (in this case iThenticate).

Universal Press Syndicate said today that it doesn't think controversial columnist Ann Coulter is guilty of plagiarism.

In a statement sent to E&P, Universal President and Editor Lee Salem said: "Last week a software program company official ran Ann Coulter's columns through a 'match-text' program, frequently used by teachers to detect original work. The New York Post cited two columns in which some text matched other published materials and also mentioned three snippets in her book, 'Godless, The Church of Liberalism.'

"In addition to looking at the columns mentioned in the New York Post story, we also reviewed a sampling of other columns that have been mentioned in the media. Like her book publisher, Crown, Universal Press Syndicate finds no merits to the allegations of plagiarism brought by the software company executive. There are only so many ways you can rewrite a fact and minimal matching text is not plagiarism. . . . .

See also a recent AP story on this..