billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman threatens to sue Business Insider After the outlet published two articles accusing his wife Nell Oxman of plagiarizing her 2010 doctoral thesis.
Ackman said Monday that Business Insider and its parent company, Axel Springer, have “tripled down on false claims and defamation” in response to plagiarism accusations against Oxman, a prominent designer and former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. ” he said.
Regarding X, Ackman added, “When I say a complaint, I mean, clearly, a lawsuit.''
Just a few hours ago, Ackman was described by Business Insider as “cheers” for a post that included a scene from the 2000 film “Gladiator”, “At My Signal, Unleash Hell.”
Business Insider's chief executive said Sunday that he was satisfied with the fairness and accuracy of the story about Oxman, following Ackman's complaint.
The plagiarism accusations come after Ackman campaigned against Harvard University President Claudine Gay, who resigned earlier this month after being criticized for her answers to Congressional hearings on anti-Semitism.
The news outlet was raising both the idea of hypocrisy and the possibility that academic dishonesty is widespread even among the nation's most prominent scholars.
Business Insider's first article (January 4) said that Ackman seized on revelations about gay activism to support his own anti-gay activism, but that the organization's journalists “discovered a similar pattern of plagiarism” by Oxman. ” he pointed out.
A second article, published the next day, said Oxman stole sentences and paragraphs from his 2010 MIT doctoral thesis from Wikipedia, fellow academics, and technical documents.
Ackman complained that attacking someone's family in such a way is a minor blow, and said he gave Business Insider reporters less than two hours to respond to the accusations.
He suggested that the editors there were anti-Zionists. Oxman was born in Israel.
Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng issued a statement on Sunday saying there was “no unfair bias or personal, political or religious motivation in pursuing this story.”
Mr. Peng said the article was newsworthy and that Mr. Oxman, known to the public as a prominent intellectual, was a suitable subject.
The story is “accurate and the facts are well documented,” Peng said.
“At Business Insider, we support and empower our journalists to share newsworthy, fact-based stories with our readers, and we do so with editorial independence.” he writes.
Ackman said his wife admitted that four quotation marks and one footnote were missing from the 330-page paper.
He said the article could have “literally killed” his wife if it weren't for the support of his family and friends.
“She has suffered severe psychological damage,” he wrote to X. “And with her introversion, it was very difficult for her to get through each day.”
with post wire
