Malcolm Gladwell: Plagiarism Is Just ‘Bad Manners’; The Daily Beast, March 11, 2019

Marlow Stern, The Daily Beast; Malcolm Gladwell: Plagiarism Is Just ‘Bad Manners’

"You don’t think plagiarism is a journalistic sin? 

I mean, it’s bad manners. Who cares. Someone can use all the words of mine they want. What I get angry at is when I have an idea that I think is original and consequential, and someone steals it and doesn’t credit me, that makes me mad. But if you want to go through my books and you find a paragraph, and you think that paragraph describes something really well and want to stick it in your book, go ahead! 

So if I wanted to release Blink under my name you wouldn’t sue my ass into oblivion? I’m kidding obviously. 

Well, not the whole book! But the book is an idea. There’s a story in Blink about a Marine Corps general, and if you think it’s a great paragraph and you want to take it, I hope you credit me. But if you don’t credit me, am I going to knock on your door and ask for you to be fired from your job? No! Life goes on, man. People have to have some sense of judgment about these things. These are not crimes; they are misdemeanors. If I saw you jaywalking, would I ask for you to be fired from your job? 

You don’t think a journalist should be fired for plagiarism? 

It’s bad manners. I don’t think the person who plagiarized me should have lost her job. I don’t care."