MAY 7, 2018
U.S. first lady Melania Trump delivers remarks at the launch of her Be Best initiatives in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., May 7, 2018. Melania Trump has run into another plagiarism problem. – REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The First Lady rolled out her “Be Best” campaign to combat cyberbullying on Monday — and provided attendants at a White House press conference with an informational pamphlet that is nearly identical to a Federal Trade Commission report from 2014.
Except for a few minor changes, Melania Trump’s “Talking with Kids About Being Online” is a page-by-page duplicate of a leaflet entitled “Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online” put out by the FTC in January 2014.
Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for the First Lady, said the White House repurposed the 25-page FTC report because it “clearly related to the social media portion of Mrs. Trump’s initiatives.”
“It was updated and edited to reflect today’s event and we were happy to be able to provide the children in attendance with such a resource,” Grisham told the Daily News.
But the only portions of the First Lady’s pamphlet that are “updated and edited” is the title, the cover page, a few graphics of smartphones and a subhead that now reads “Sexting: Don’t do it” instead of the Obama-era FTC report’s “Sexting.”
Except for a few minor changes, Melania Trump’s “Talking with Kids About Being Online” is a page-by-page duplicate of a leaflet entitled “Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online” put out by the FTC in 2014. – FTC
This is not the first time Melania Trump has found herself in hot water over plagiarism.
A speechwriter admitted to accidentally including word-by-word sections of a Michelle Obama speech in Melania Trump’s address to the Republican National Convention in July 2016.
“A person she has always liked is Michelle Obama,” Trump’s speechwriter, Meredith McIver, said in a statement at the time. “Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech.”
In addition to the FTC flub, Melania Trump’s “Be Best” awareness campaign raised some eyebrows since one of its main focuses is combating cyberbullying — behavior her husband is notorious around the world for perpetuating.
Courtesy/Source: Daily News
