{"id":33470,"date":"2016-07-20T15:10:01","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T19:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=33470"},"modified":"2016-07-21T21:12:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T01:12:40","slug":"pet-peeve-a-womans-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/pet-peeve-a-womans-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Pet Peeve: A Woman’s Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many other people, I’ve been amazed and amused by the story of Melania Trump’s plagiarized speech at the Republican National Convention on Monday. Big shout-out to reporter Jarrett Hill <\/a>for breaking the story of the speech’s substantial overlap with the speech Michelle Obama gave at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. (Note: Hill wasn’t one of the many reporters at the convention. The Los Angeles Times<\/a> said he was watching MSNBC’s live stream while drinking a venti iced coffee in a Culver City, Calif., Starbucks.)<\/p>\n

How did Melania manage to mess up? According to the New York Times<\/a>, Jared Kushner — Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser — originally commissioned a speech from two experienced speechwriters, Matthew Scully and John McConnell. They turned in a draft last month, but didn’t hear anything back. Melania “was uncomfortable with the text and began tearing it apart,” the Times reported, based on interviews with “more than a dozen people involved in and close to the Trump campaign.”<\/p>\n

Melania got some help (it wasn’t immediately clear how much) from a person who the Times described as a “trusted hand.” The trusted hand was:<\/p>\n

“…Meredith McIver, a New York City-based former ballet dancer and English major who has worked on some of Mr. Trump’s books, including ‘Think Like a Billionaire.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ballet dancer factoid was colorful enough for Vanity Fair to call its blog post about the Times article: “Is a Ballerina to Blame for Melania Trump’s Plagiarized Speech?<\/a>”<\/p>\n

I got totally sidetracked by description, and — even worse — I was no longer amused.<\/p>\n