Plagiarism and ReTweeting

A few days ago, I tweeted this:

"OMG! Even if I was a birther, why would I sent $30 to this guy to send a few faxes? Aren't faxes, like, free?"

In response to this:


Today, I first noticed on the Rachel Maddow Show that she had a segment in which she discussed this Informercial, which apparently only appeared on the local station at Lubbock, TX. She pointed out that the time slot and the station cost LivePrayer (the creators of the Informercial) about $100. Bill Keller, the host, is apparently an ex-con, and as the Rachel Maddow Show suggest, a current con-man because of this scheme.

For $30, LivePrayer will send a fax to fifty "Attorney Generals [sic]" AND to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding an invesgtigation into Obama's birth. In addition, they will add your name to a petition to send to GOP leaders (notice they don't care if Democratic leaders get the petition or not) and you'll also get a bumper sticker.

So, if LivePrayer convinces four people to send money, then Bill Keller makes a profit off of this thirty minute video. At these kind of prices, he'll make the move to other stations before too much longer.

I later noticed this story airing on Chris Matthews' Hardball, though it was less of a segment than a sideshow item on the Hardball Sideshow, which leads me to believe (though I have no proof on how the inner workings of MSNBC are) that a higher up suggested Maddow and Matthews include a segment on their show about this crackpot. (PS I didn't watch Countdown tonight because it's just not the same without Olbermann. I hope his family is doing okay. I know his dad has been in ill health for some while now.)

I, however, would like to propose a different scenario. I like to think that Rachel Maddow subscribes to my Tweets through some TweetBot user name and that she scooped the story from me, even going so far as to use my line, "why would I send $30 to this guy for a few faxes? Aren't faxes, like, free?"

So, I request, nay, I DEMAND a reference from the venerable Rachel Maddow, lest I charge her with intellectual dishonesty and, dare I say it?, PLAGIARISM!

I'm just joking, I wouldn't do that. However, I would like to close with a few questions:

When you RT something via Twitter that is itself a RT, how many people should you reference in your RT? I think it should always be two unless the 140 character parameter limits you.

Also, if you reference something in real life that you read in a Tweet, should you recognize the fact that you first uncoverered this information in Tweet form?