Claudine Homosexual has resigned as president of Harvard College, although she’s going to hold her job as a school member within the political science division—and her $900,000 a yr wage. That is one thing of an achievement, provided that her misdeeds have been tutorial in nature: Homosexual was caught plagiarizing quite a few passages from different students.
However in some corners of the media, the very fact she dedicated plagiarism issues a lot lower than the fact that it was conservative writers who caught her. The Washington Free Beacon‘s Aaron Sibarium (a reporter at a right-leaning information web site) carried out the lion’s share of the digging; Christopher Brunet (a conservative author), Christopher Rufo (a conservative author and activist), and Phil Magness (a libertarian financial historian) additionally made vital contributions. Astonishingly, some mainstream standards-keepers have determined that the ideologies of the accusers have primarily discredited the accusations.
Cue the Related Press (A.P.), which posted the next, exceptional commentary on X (previously Twitter): “Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism.”
Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon towards schools: plagiarism https://t.co/GiVkT3LgUo
— The Related Press (@AP) January 3, 2024
The tweet is doubly mistaken: It inadvertently means that plagiarism is the weapon conservatives are wielding—as if conservatives are committing plagiarism—when the so-called weapon is definitely plagiarism allegations. However in both case, the framing is ludicrous. Conservatives didn’t invent this concept; quite the opposite, many mainstream journalists have made complete careers out of digging up speeches, books, and articles written by conservatives, and checking them for plagiarism.
To take only one distinguished instance, take into account Andrew Kaczynski, a reporter for CNN. Kaczynski is a prolific discoverer of plagiarism dedicated by conservatives. He uncovered conservative tv persona Monica Crowley, rightwing Sheriff David Clarke, and plenty of others. Was his work ignored as a result of it’s, on some degree, politically motivated? In fact not. (To his credit score, Kaczynski criticized the A.P.’s framing; CNN has made worthwhile contributions to the Homosexual plagiarism story.)
To make issues abundantly clear, the media has by no means chosen to disregard a plagiarism scandal or write it off as trivial or unfair, merely as a result of the accuser has a political agenda. Plagiarism allegations derailed the 1988 presidential marketing campaign of then Sen. Joe Biden (D–Del.), who was accused by The New York Instances and others of copying parts of a speech by British Labour Celebration Chief Neil Kinnock. Biden additionally copied from each John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, and “did something very stupid”—his phrases—in regulation faculty, when he stole 5 pages from a regulation evaluate article and submitted them as a part of a authorized transient.
You would need to have been born yesterday to suppose that allegations of plagiarism are a brand new political weapon invented by conservatives.
Alas, different points of the media narrative surrounding Homosexual’s ouster are simply as miserable. A number of commentators have determined that Homosexual was in the end pressured out due to racism. New York Instances opinion author Mara Gay (no relation, so far as I do know) stated that Homosexual’s critics have been really attacking “diversity” and “multiculturalism.” “You can see and hear the racism,” she stated on MSNBC. The Instances‘ Nikole Hannah-Jones expressed related sentiments. Rev. Al Sharpton stated the departure of Homosexual was an assault on “every black woman.” Ibram X. Kendi, an anti-racist scholar, blamed a “racist mob.”
Is it racist to demand that the president of Harvard College be held to the identical customary as different college members? The identical customary as her college students? Harvard takes plagiarism very severely when college students are involved. As one member of Harvard Faculty’s Honor Council wrote in an editorial for The Harvard Crimson: “There is one standard for me and my peers and another, much lower standard for our University’s president.”
Saying that Homosexual was ousted as a result of she’s a black girl is insulting to hardworking students of all races and sexes. She was the president of probably the most elite academic establishment within the nation, and was lastly held accountable for apparent and verifiable tutorial wrongdoing. And she’s nonetheless going to be educating.
