Populist leader alleged to have ‘copied word for word’ a monologue by TV show’s fictional president Jed Bartlet

Populist leader alleged to have ‘copied word for word’ a monologue by TV show’s fictional president Jed Bartlet

Argentina’s rightwing populist president, Javier Milei, has been accused of plagiarising a chunk of his recent speech to the United Nations general assembly from the political drama The West Wing.

“It seems like fiction, but it isn’t,” the left-leaning Buenos Aires newspaper Página 12 reported on Friday, claiming Milei had “copied, word for word, a monologue” by the television show’s fictional president, Josiah “Jed” Bartlet.

Suspicions over Milei’s address surfaced this week when the political columnist Carlos Pagni flagged the “extraordinary” similarities between part of the president’s speech and words uttered by Martin Sheen’s Bartlet 21 years earlier. “Didn’t anyone else notice?” Pagni wrote in the newspaper La Nación, before transcribing the words of both men.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
    811·
    3 months ago

    “Suspicious were raised early when President Milei departed from his typical Spanish and began speaking not only in perfect English, but with a slight New Hampshire accent. Further concerns were raised at the end of the speech where he told waiting reports to refer any questions to his press secretary CJ Cregg.” /s

  • crystalmerchant@lemmy.worldEnglish
    111·
    3 months ago

    The likeness between the two speeches raised Argentinian eyebrows and was attributed by one newspaper to the West Wing obsession of Milei’s chief strategist, Santiago Caputo. “Fanatical about the screenwriter [and creator of the series] Aaron Sorkin, Caputo has watched the whole of The West Wing between seven and nine times,” La Nación reported this year.

    So… 8 times?

    • Keith@lemmy.zipEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      No, I think the phrasing means 7, 8, or 9 even though technically neither 7 or 9 are between 7 and 9, it’s like figurative

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    5·
    3 months ago

    Well, if I remember correctly, Milei’s thing is reining in the budget or something, right? I guess that’s one way to save money!

  • MimicJar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    Perhaps even funnier, this year marks the 25th anniversary of The West Wing. The reason I know that is a new West Wing YouTube celebrating the anniversary just appeared and starting posting videos of the highlights.

    If you visit this channel and look at the top video, you find the exact video he plagiarized the speech from. https://youtu.be/sZ_Q-3AhoAs

    So this wasn’t a speech he likely remembered and plagiarized, this is likely just a helpful YouTube recommendation.