- Title: Forensic linguist says look beyond obvious clues for ID of NY Times op-ed
- Date: 6th September 2018
- Summary: HEMPSTEAD, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 6, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY FORENSIC LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR ROBERT LEONARD, LOOKING AT COMPUTER LETTER FROM CASE LEONARD WORKED ON (SOUNDBITE) (English) HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY FORENSIC LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR ROBERT LEONARD, SAYING: "There's always a universe of information in any utterance, an
- Embargoed: 20th September 2018 22:52
- Keywords: U.S. President Donald Trump anonymous op-ed I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
- Location: HEMPSTEAD, AND NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: HEMPSTEAD, AND NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0028WHQNUV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A forensic linguist on Thursday (September 6) told Reuters that whoever wrote an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times published the day before probably left linguistic clues about his identity, but he cautioned amateur sleuths to avoid the obvious when trying to ferret out the writer - who the newspaper said was a senior White House official.
Wednesday's (September 5) piece, titled "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," sought to assure Americans that officials in U.S. President Trump's administration "are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations." The editorial questions the president's morality and criticizes his leadership style, comments and actions.
"Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what's right even when Donald Trump won't," the writer said.
"In general we try to look for things that are less obvious than they might be because in this New York Times op-ed we have a very obvious set of phrases for example 'lodestar', 'don't get me wrong', or something like that that are characteristic of certain people who work in the White House," said Hofstra University Forensic Linguistics Department Director Robert Leonard.
"And everybody said, 'Gee who uses this word who's a potential candidate for having authored it?' And we see Vice President Mike Pence. But I don't know what good evidence it is that it is Mike Pence, because anybody who wanted to indicate that it might be Pence could use the word 'lodestar' or maybe somebody who wanted attention directed away from herself or himself," Leonard said.
A spokesman for Pence said the vice president does not write anonymous opinion columns. "The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed," spokesman Jarrod Agen said on Twitter.
Top aides to Donald Trump scrambled on Thursday to deny authorship of an anonymous New York Times opinion column that slammed the U.S. president's leadership style and described "a quiet resistance" to him within his own administration.
Trump seethed about the piece and presented it as one more jab from the ranks of disgruntled critics in denial about his presidential successes, even as Washington was consumed with speculation about who wrote it.
The article just days after the publication of excerpts from a new book by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward that portrays Trump as prone to impulsive decision-making. The excerpts described senior aides as sometimes disregarding his instructions to limit what they saw as damaging behavior.
On Wednesday, visibly angry at a White House event, Trump called the Times article a "gutless editorial," and spokeswoman Sarah Sanders called on the writer to resign.
For his part, Leonard would not opine on who he thought wrote the op-ed. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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