''What the (Bleep) Just Happened?: The Happy Warrior's Guide to the Great American Comeback'' is a 2012 book by

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

contributor

Monica Crowley Monica Elizabeth Crowley (born September 19, 1968) was the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. She has been a political commentator and lobbyist. She was a Fox News contributor, where she worked (with ...

. It was published by Broadside Books, a

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

imprint. ''What the (Bleep) Just Happened?'' was a New York Times bestseller. In 2013, the book was re-released with an afterword and the title ''What the (Bleep) Just Happened... Again?: The Happy Warrior's Guide to the Great American Comeback''. According to Crowley, the book's name came from a conversation she had with her friend about the Obama administration:

Reception

Kirkus Reviews panned the book, writing that Crowley's "vitriol corrodes any basis for rational discussion". The review suggested that readers pass on the book unless they are Fox News junkies, saying it is "just a restatement of similar xenophobic, snarkily presented sentiment". A review by Lauren Weiner in ''

The Weekly Standard ''The Weekly Standard'' was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis and commentary, published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the ''Standard'' had been described as a "re ...

'' said that Crowley's arguments were overstated and employed

doggerel Doggerel, or doggrel, is poetry that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme, often deliberately for burlesque or comic effect. Alternatively, it can mean verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme, and cheap or trivial meaning. The word is deri ...

. Weiner wrote further that after "over 300 pages of cynical quips, Nixonian realism, and declarations that 'the romanticism of the Left is over, Crowley declared herself a "happy warrior".

Plagiarism

Following the announcement by the

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

administration in December 2016 that Crowley would be appointed to the U.S. National Security Council, reports surfaced of plagiarism in ''What the (Bleep) Just Happened?''. A January 7, 2017 report from '' CNN Money'' alleged numerous instances of plagiarism in the book, including over fifty incidents of copying from published sources without giving attribution. The Trump transition team responded that: Two days later, on January 9, 2017, a ''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

'' report alleged a dozen instances of plagiarism in her 2000 Ph.D. dissertation on international relations at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Crowley had previously been accused of plagiarism in 1999 related to a column on

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

she wrote for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' containing "striking similarities" (according to the ''Journal'') with a piece written eleven years earlier by Paul Johnson. The next day, HarperCollins announced that "''What the (Bleep) Just Happened?'', which has reached the end of its natural sales cycle, will no longer be offered for purchase until such time as the author has the opportunity to source and revise the material." In 2019, it remained available from HarperCollins as an e-book download.

References

External links

Presentation by Crowley on ''What the (Bleep) Just Happened?'', June 25, 2012
C-SPAN {{DEFAULTSORT:What the Bleep Just Happened 2012 non-fiction books American political books Books involved in plagiarism controversies Broadside Books books