First Daughter Ivanka Trump is on a whirlwind tour through India this week, promoting education, advancement and equality for the country’s school-aged girls. She’s given several speeches but, apparently, Newsweek is angry that she appeared to give the same speech more than once.
Under the accusatory headline, “Ivanka Trump plagiarizes one of her own speeches in India,” the magazine declared that they were disappointed with Ivanka’s remarks to an educational conference in Hyderabad, claiming that instead of “a robust keynote address,” Ivanka delivered something that fell short. “The breadth of her talking points were recycled from a previous speech she gave during a foreign trip earlier this month.”
That’s a fair criticism, for sure. But it’s not plagiarism. Because — and this is key — you can’t plagiarize yourself.
Plagiarism is the theft of ideas or of copy, and while Ivanka definitely copied part of her speech, you can’t technically steal your own ideas — or your own copy.
Unsurprisingly, Newsweek was quickly taken to task for their “unique observation” on Twitter — and not just by conservatives.
That….isn’t what plagiarism is https://t.co/Uo8fqypcus
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 30, 2017
You can’t plagiarize your own speech, you morons.https://t.co/KLgJVztyjK
— Will Piereson (@JWP1022) November 30, 2017
Um yeah it’s ok to do that. I plagiarize myself all the time, claim my own words as my own. https://t.co/BDyKE0WEuA
— Douglas Watters (@douglaswatters) November 30, 2017
Newsweek left the story up, despite criticism.