The left-leaning New York Times has been accused of “lying” about plagiarism allegations against Vice President Kamala Harris in an attempt to undermine exclusive coverage by conservative activists who criticized the Democratic presidential candidate.
Christopher Rufo, who helped expose the plagiarism allegations by Harvard University President Claudine Gay that ultimately led to his dismissal, said some passages from Harris' 2009 book, “Smart on Crime,” are from other sources. It was posted on Monday that the wording is very similar to or exactly the same as the one posted on Monday.
The Times went on to publish an article noting that it could only find “five sections” containing “approximately 500 words” that Rufo questioned. The paper quoted plagiarism expert Jonathan Bailey as saying that Rufo had made a relatively minor misquote and was “trying to trade on it.”
Mr Bailey, who runs the website Plagiarism Today, told the Times: “The amount of plagiarism amounts to error and is not intended to defraud.”
However, after the Gray Lady published the article, Bailey wrote on his I wrote that I have not conducted any analysis. Attorney General.
Rufo said he provided the Times with a complete analysis by Austrian researcher Dr. Stefan Weber, who found “18 allegations of varying severity,” which the Times cited. The sample was much broader than the actual one.
“The New York Times is lying about my plagiarized article, but I have the receipts to prove it,” Rufo, an academic at the right-wing Manhattan Institute, wrote in a lengthy post on X on Tuesday.
He accused the Times of “deliberately withholding” Weber's full analysis to minimize the scope of the scandal.
When he asked the Times for a “polite correction,” the editor, Mary Sue, “had nothing but excuses,” Rufo said.
“So we're going to fight this issue tooth and nail,” Rufo said. “They should issue a correction, but even if they don't, I'm going to publicly correct the record.” added.
The Post has contacted the Times for comment.
In his initial report on Monday, Rufo posted a screenshot of five sentences that showed Harris may have deleted the text. From the Associated Press article Since 2008, Wikipedia article As drafted in 2008, 2000 Justice Assistance ReportUrban Research Institute report Graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice since 2004 press release Let's talk about the 2007 awards.
In at least two instances, the source of the original words is cited in a footnote.
However, there are no quotation marks around the lifted words, and there are instances, such as the Urban Institute report, where the text appears to be uncredited at all.
The Times article made headlines “Conservative activists exploit passages from Harris' book.” The subheading was as follows: “A report by Christopher Rufo says the Democratic presidential candidate copied five short passages from a 2009 crime book. Plagiarism experts said the lapse was not serious.”
The paper also appeared to imply that Mr. Rufo's motives for publishing the plagiarism allegations were racist.
“Mr. Rufo is part of a loose coalition of conservative writers and activists who over the past year have sought to expose plagiarism among academics who are Black scholars working in the field of diversity and inclusion. “Some scholars have characterized the campaign as racist,” the Times wrote, adding: “Some scholars have characterized this campaign as racist.”
Monday, Harris Campaign spokesman James Singer said:: “This is a book published 15 years ago, and the Vice President clearly cites sources and statistics in footnotes and endnotes throughout.”
What then-Vice President Harris told us in 2021 Elle magazine It came under intense scrutiny after readers noticed similarities to a similar one spoken by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965.
Additional reporting by Steven Nelson
