The Associated Press came under fire on social media Wednesday for its article on Claudine Gay's resignation as Harvard president, specifically the headline, “Harvard president's resignation highlights new conservative weapon against universities: plagiarism.” .
Amid repeated backlash, the Associated Press changed its policy. heading —Updated Wednesday at 12:38 p.m. ET — “Plagiarism charges oust Harvard University president. Conservative attacks helped stoke anger,” it reads.
New headlines no longer embrace the idea that conservatives have used plagiarism as a “weapon against universities” or that plagiarism is the “new” arrow in conservatives' all-out attack on institutions of higher education.
The text of the article has also changed from the first version seen by Blaze News (updated at 1:41 a.m. ET Wednesday) to the version updated again at 12:38 p.m. ET Wednesday.
What did the Associated Press say?
Blaze News reached out to The Associated Press for comment Wednesday and asked why the headline and story were changed. The Associated Press responded Wednesday with the following statement: “The original article did not meet our standards, so we have updated it.”
After all, AP post on X The link to this article still uses the previous headline as of 2pm ET.
Image source: X
As you can imagine, X's posts continue to be appreciated all day long. In other words, comments outnumber likes. The Associated Press post had about 4,300 likes and about 10,000 comments as of 2 p.m. ET.
Additionally, the Associated Press post included a community note calling for the following:
Image source: X
The Associated Press post had been viewed 12.4 million times, and that number was growing as of Wednesday afternoon.
How are people reacting?
Prominent commenters on the Associated Press post were not happy with the news organization.
- Company X CEO Elon Musk attended. top of pack: “And once again, kudos to @CommunityNotes for the win. Gay repeatedly violated Harvard's rules against plagiarism. Source: Harvard University.”
- The red-haired liberal could not restrain her.”Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” was the reaction.
- Cartoonist George Alexopoulos said“Imagine having to write the piece yourself!”
- Quillette editor, writer, and podcaster Jonathan Kay offered Next gem:
Image source: X
Tim Young had: To tell As for the AP's first headline: “Plagiarism is now a 'weapon of conservatives.'” Remember, Facebook/Meta uses this fake news organization to “fact check” people. ”
Red State's Brandon Morse added: joke: “Conservatives are weaponizing the *check* to hold people accountable for their actions.”
That's what Abigail Jackson, communications director for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) had to do. Also check out her notes: “And we could have gotten away with it too! If those damn conservatives and their… *check notes* hadn’t pointed out that the president of our top academic university had plagiarized. That’s right, B.C. That’s entirely conservatives’ fault.”
Others were equally outraged by the choice of words “conservative weapons” in the first headline.
- One commenter said, “Plagiarism is always completely unacceptable in academia.” Said. “I don't see how that would be a 'conservative weapon.'”
- “How many conservatives did it take to force Claudine Gay to plagiarize 50 times? Was it over 100,000? What exactly were the weapons used?” another user wrote. I wondered. “I'm writing a paper on this.”
- Another user: “You guys have already lost your mind.” declared. “Setting standards and expecting people to abide by them is not a 'conservative weapon'.”
- Another commented: “Can someone please think about the plagiarists! This conservative's courage knows no bounds.” said With just the right amount of sarcasm.
How does the text in the story version differ?
For example, the first three paragraphs of an Associated Press article updated at 1:41 a.m. ET Wednesday read:
WASHINGTON (AP) – The fall of Harvard University's president has raised the threat of exposing academia's cardinal sin: plagiarism, a potential new weapon in conservative attacks on higher education.
Claudine Gay's resignation Tuesday added to weeks of accusations that she plagiarized words from other academics in her doctoral dissertations and journal articles. The suspicion arose when backlash on top of her Congressional testimony on anti-Semitism On campus.
The plagiarism allegations came not from her fellow academics but from her political opponents, led by conservatives. Who tried to banish gay people? and put her career under intense scrutiny in hopes of finding a fatal flaw. Her detractors accused a gay man with a Ph.D. of criticizing his girlfriend. In government, she served as a professor at Harvard and Stanford universities, and before her promotion led Harvard's largest department, but her top job was largely due to her being one of the first Black women to reach the top job. Because there is.
The first three paragraphs of the story version, updated again at 12:38 p.m. ET Wednesday, read:
WASHINGTON (AP) – Plagiarism has long been considered a cardinal sin in American higher education. Accusations of academic fraud have ruined the careers of faculty and undergraduates alike.
The latest target is Harvard University President Claudine Gay, who resigned on Tuesday. In her case, her anger came not from her fellow academics but from her political opponents, led by conservatives. put her career under intense scrutiny.
A review by Harvard University found multiple shortcomings in Gay's academic citations. Among them, “duplicate language” The university concluded that these mistakes “were not considered intentional or reckless” and did not constitute misconduct. But the suspicions persisted, and on Monday there were new ones.
anything else?
In a video posted to It should be noted that he is not accused of stealing someone's idea; he is accused of something like copying someone else's writing without attributing the source; that is, rather than stealing someone's idea. That would be even more sloppy attribution.”
Gay, Harvard's first black president, said during his resignation that he has been “subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”
Continuing that theme, critical race theorist Ibram They won't stop until they overthrow all black people from positions of power and influence that don't strengthen structures.What these racist mobs are doing is not about fights and clicks, but about truth and This should be obvious to reporters who value justice.
Following Gay's resignation, professor and sociopolitical commentator Marc Lamont Hill said Harvard's next president “must be a black woman.”
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