From the Office of Non Sequiturs and Nonsense (inexplicably abbreviated as the OOBS), here is the explanation for the inaccurate attribution of an inspirational quote on the carpet in the Oval Office:
“We are entering into a new world of technological advancement, and information proliferation. With the advent of resources like Wikipedia, and the rampant re-vamping of various cultural and artistic icons through what is commonly called the “cover” or “re-make”, it has been decided that it is acceptable to attribute works of all kinds to individuals other than the ones that originally created them, provided that they accurately copied them in the first place. This practice has already been seen in the book publishing industry (notably, in former Senator Rick Santorum’s book, “It Takes a Family”, references to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy were attributed to the film version of the books), and is flourishing in the music industry (in example, Placebo and Shiny Toy Guns made admirable copies of “Running Up That Hill” and “Major Tom” respectively, and since their versions have been adopted by TV producers and Madison Ave., it is perfectly acceptable to attribute the songs to them). There is no compelling reason to require research into the original sources of platitudes uttered by historical or public figures for the purposes of attribution.”
When questioned on the potential repercussions in the academic world, no comment was offered – the spokesperson received a call apparently from executives at an unnamed film studio that was concerned with overt references to the original “King Kong” film as opposed to the “new and improved” Peter Jackson version on a website dedicated to film preservation. OOBS officials are apparently not concerned with anything beyond their own office, a department that has a dubious purpose at best.
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