Washington Times Columnist: Originality Deficit?
Arnaud de Borchgrave has a career of distinction to go with journalism’s coolest name. He is a former top editor of the Washington Times (1985-1991), and his work overseas dates to 1947, when he became United Press International’s Brussels bureau chief at the age of 21. These days he serves as director of the transnational threats project at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and he lists his regional specialties as Afghanistan, the Middle East, Pakistan, South Asia and Western Europe. He is also the Washington Times’ editor-at-large.
The Bechamel sauce on de Borchgrave’s résumé is his weekly columnizing for the Washington Times and UPI. The topics reflect his think-tank work — heavy on geopolitics and terrorism. Of his columnar bona fides, de Borchgrave writes, “Both Sen. Chuck Hagel and Marvin Kalb have described me in recent e-mails as the best American columnist in print today.”
Perhaps not the most original, however. Parts of his oeuvre appear to borrow occasionally from others’ pieces on the same topic, without attribution.