NEW YORK, July 11 (UPI) -- Universal Press Syndicate has joined Crown Books in defending conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter against allegations of plagiarism.
The New York Post had reported a match-text computer program used by teachers to detect copied work found matches between two of Coulter's syndicated newspaper columns and other published works as well as three snippets of her book, "Godless, The Church of Liberalism" and previously published materials.
Universal President Lee Salem said in a statement to Editor & Publisher that the syndicate agrees with Crown there are "no merits" to the accusations spreading through the media.
"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," the statement said. "There are only so many ways you can rewrite a fact and minimal matching text is not plagiarism."
