‘Astounding’: AP Absolutely Blistered Over Story Blaming Harvard President’s Plagiarism Scandal On Conservatives Pouncing

Caleb HoweJan 3rd, 2024, 3:26 pm
 

The Associated Press did not commit plagiarism but certainly stuck with a tried-and-true framing this week in an article since updated and hit with a community note that argued the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay is really a story about conservatives pouncing.

In an article by reporters Collin Binkley and Moriah Balingit published Wednesday, the AP reported that, although Harvard found “multiple shortcomings in Gay’s academic citations,” and “duplicative language,” and despite the fact that “American higher education has long viewed plagiarism as a cardinal sin,” the problem here is that it wasn’t peers who noticed Gay’s violations but “her political foes.”

“Many academics were troubled with how the plagiarism came to light: as part of a coordinated campaign to discredit Gay and force her from office, in part because of her involvement in efforts for racial justice on campus,” they wrote.

Although the two reporters mentioned that Gay was embroiled in controversy recently along with other university heads over their answers at congressional hearing, they did not elaborate on the nature of the remarks that put them in hot water, nor did the AP reporters make clear it was a bipartisan backlash.

Instead they constructed a case that the Ivy League are victims of an insidious plot by the right, that she was a “target” because she’s a Black woman in a position of power, and closed the article by arguing that Gay’s transgressions, which were ultimately ruled on by Harvard’s governing bodies and had corrections issued in some cases, weren’t really transgressions after all.

When the AP shared the article on X it did not go over well, as the conservatives accused of pouncing made clear along with many other from across the political and media spectrum. It was ultimately slapped with a Community Note elaborating on the actual details of Gay’s various scandals – prompting a reply from Elon Musk.

One part of the article prompted particularly prominent highlighting, in which they framed the Native American historical practice of “scalping” as a sort of “colonists pounce” story.

That was soon after changed by the AP, without a note about an update or correction, as right wing activist Christopher Rufo, who was the object of the paragraph, noted on X.

There were many other reactions panning the amazing article from a wide array of commentators including Piers Morgan, Ben Shapiro, Bari Weiss, Conor Friedersdorf, and even CNN’s KFile Andrew Kaczynski.

Even Joe Walsh found it embarrassing.

“Astounding” is a good summary of how many of the commentators saw the AP article’s framing — and that type of article in general.

—

Tags:
Caleb Howe - Contributing Editor

Caleb Howe is an editor and writer focusing on politics and media. Former managing editor at RedState. Published at USA Today, Blaze, National Review, Daily Wire, American Spectator, AOL News, Asylum, fortune cookies, manifestos, napkins, fridge drawings...