{"id":2355266,"date":"2024-10-15T15:29:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T19:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-pounce-to-cover-up-kamala-harris-plagiarism-scandal\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T15:31:21","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T19:31:21","slug":"media-pounce-to-cover-up-kamala-harris-plagiarism-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-pounce-to-cover-up-kamala-harris-plagiarism-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Media &#8216;Pounce&#8217; To Cover Up Kamala Harris&#8217; Plagiarism Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmedia-pounce-to-cover-up-kamala-harris-plagiarism-scandal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2355266&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Legacy media are reportedly trying to downplay a new allegation\u200c that Kamala Harris plagiarized portions of a book she\u2062 co-authored, titled\u2063 *Smart on Crime: A \u200cCareer Prosecutor\u2019s Plan to \u200cMake Us Safer*. The controversy began after Christopher Rufo from the Manhattan Institute cited findings by plagiarism researcher Stefan Weber, \u2062suggesting that certain passages in Harris&#8217;s book closely resembled text from various sources, including an\u200d NBC News article and a Wikipedia entry. <\/p>\n<p>Rufo described some of the plagiarism as minor, but \u200bhe noted\u2062 serious infractions akin to those found in cases of other public figures, \u2063which could damage Harris&#8217;s campaign. In response to the allegations, the New York Times\u200d published an\u2064 article\u200b by three reporters attempting to diminish the significance of\u200d the claims, framing them as a right-wing attack. They stated \u200cthat the questioned passages \u2062did not represent \u200cthe most severe form of plagiarism, yet acknowledged that some text was indeed derived from other works without proper citation.<\/p>\n<p>One example discussed involved Harris and her co-author using verbatim phrases from an NBC report regarding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/4-key-policy-areas-where-the-democratic-leadership-and-black-voters-disagree\/\" title=\"4 Key Policy Areas Where The Democratic Leadership And Black Voters Disagree\">high school graduation rates<\/a>. \u2063Furthermore, a plagiarism consultant interviewed \u200dby \u200dthe Times suggested that any errors in Harris\u2019s work were unintentional, thus attempting to mitigate the allegations further. The controversy highlights ongoing debates\u200c around accountability and integrity in political \u200ccommunications.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Legacy media are working overtime to delegitimize a new report indicating Kamala Harris allegedly plagiarized parts of a book she co-authored. <\/p>\n<p>The cover-up began on Monday shortly after the Manhattan Institute&rsquo;s Christopher Rufo <a href=\"https:\/\/christopherrufo.com\/p\/kamala-harriss-plagiarism-problem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> findings by&nbsp;Austrian &ldquo;plagiarism&nbsp;hunter&rdquo; Stefan Weber, who purportedly discovered that a 2009 book co-authored by Harris and Joan O&rsquo;C. Hamilton contains passages seemingly lifted from various other published works and websites. The book is titled <em>Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor&rsquo;s Plan to Make Us Safer<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Rufo noted how &ldquo;[s]ome of the passages [Weber] highlighted appear to contain minor transgressions &mdash; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jd-vance-pounces-as-kamala-harris-gets-hit-with-serious-plagiarism-allegations\/\" title=\"JD Vance Pounces as Kamala Harris Gets Hit with Serious Plagiarism Allegations\">reproducing small sections<\/a> of text; insufficient paraphrasing &mdash; but others seem to reflect more serious infractions, similar in severity to those&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/article\/is-claudine-gay-a-plagiarist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">found<\/a>&nbsp;in Harvard president Claudine Gay&rsquo;s doctoral thesis.&rdquo; The report cited numerous examples in which Harris and her co-author seemingly lifted text from sources such as an NBC News article, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice&nbsp;press release, and a Wikipedia article.<\/p>\n<p>In an effort to run damage control for Harris&rsquo; flailing campaign, the anti-speech New York Times dispatched three &ldquo;journalists&rdquo; to pen an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/10\/14\/us\/christopher-rufo-kamala-harris-book.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> aimed at undercutting Rufo&rsquo;s reporting. Replaying their worn-out &ldquo;Republicans pounce!&rdquo; playbook with the headline &ldquo;Conservative Activist Seizes on Passages From Harris Book,&rdquo; authors Stephanie Saul, Vimal Patel, and Dylan Freedman attempted to convince Times readers that the massive scandal is just another &ldquo;right-wing&rdquo; nothingburger.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In a review of the book, The New York Times found that none of the passages in question took the ideas or thoughts of another writer, which is considered the most serious form of plagiarism. Instead, the sentences copy descriptions of programs or statistical information that appear elsewhere,&rdquo; they deceptively wrote before admitting the passages cited by Rufo &ldquo;appeared to have been taken partly from other published work without quotation marks.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The investigation was conducted by Dr. Stefan Weber, a famed Austrian &#8220;plagiarism hunter&#8221; who has taken down politicians in the German-speaking world. We independently confirmed multiple violations, which are comparable in severity to the plagiarism found in former Harvard&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P9DTpZS4kV\">pic.twitter.com\/P9DTpZS4kV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Christopher F. Rufo &#9876;&#65039; (@realchrisrufo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realchrisrufo\/status\/1845847673657774387?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In one example discovered by Weber and subsequently reported by Rufo, Harris and O&rsquo;C. Hamilton seemingly lifted &ldquo;verbatim language from an uncited NBC News<em>&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/wbna23897401\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a>&rdquo; when writing about high school graduation statistics in their book.<\/p>\n<p>The bolded parts from the following book passage are the &ldquo;duplicated material[s]&rdquo; seemingly taken from the NBC report, according to Rufo. <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em><strong>In Detroit&rsquo;s public schools<\/strong><\/em>, only 25&nbsp;<strong><em>percent<\/em>&nbsp;<em>of the students<\/em><\/strong><em>&nbsp;<\/em>who enrolled in grade nine<em>&nbsp;<\/em><strong><em>graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in Indianapolis public schools and<\/em><\/strong><em>&nbsp;<\/em>34&nbsp;<strong><em>percent received diplomas in the Cleveland Municipal City School District<\/em><\/strong><em>.<\/em>&nbsp;Overall,&nbsp;<em><strong>about 70 percent of<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/em>the<em>&nbsp;<strong>U.S. students graduate<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;from public and private schools&nbsp;<strong><em>on time with a regular diploma<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>and about 1.2 million students drop out annually<\/em><\/strong><em>.&nbsp;<\/em>Only&nbsp;<em><strong>about half of the students served by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bill-passes-tennessee-state-house-prohibiting-critical-race-theory-in-public-schools\/\" title=\"Bill Passes Tennessee State House Prohibiting Critical Race Theory In Public Schools\">public school systems<\/a> in the nation&rsquo;s largest cities receive diplomas<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That apparently wasn&rsquo;t questionable enough for Saul, Patel, and Freedom to do actual reporting. Instead, the three took their Democrat activism a step further by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/10\/14\/us\/christopher-rufo-kamala-harris-book.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">contacting<\/a> a so-called &ldquo;plagiarism expert&rdquo; to downplay the findings.<\/p>\n<p>In his remarks to the Times, New Orleans-based plagiarism consultant Jonathan Bailey acted as if he could read Harris&rsquo; mind on the subject, saying the vice president&rsquo;s alleged plagiarism &ldquo;amounts to an error and not an intent to defraud.&rdquo; He later <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/plagiarismtoday\/status\/1845971948737605995\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">clarified<\/a> in an X post he has &ldquo;NOT performed a full analysis of the book,&rdquo; adding that his &ldquo;quotes were based on information provided to [him] by the reporters and [he] spoke only about those passages.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>And if their desperation to cover for Harris wasn&rsquo;t pathetic enough, the Times authors went out of their way to insinuate that Rufo&rsquo;s examination of Harris and other left-wing partisans&rsquo; literary works for potential acts of plagiarism was racially motivated. Citing his work in exposing Harvard&rsquo;s Claudine Gay and academics promoting <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/dei\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DEI ideology<\/a>, the authors wrote, &ldquo;Some academics, however, have characterized [Rufo&rsquo;s] campaign as racist.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Left-wing outlets such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/conservative-activist-claims-kamala-harris-plagiarized-smart-on-crime-book-passages\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Daily Beast<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/10\/14\/politics\/kamala-harris-plagiarism-allegation\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CNN<\/a> followed the Times&rsquo; lead in using the &ldquo;Republicans pounce!&rdquo; framing in their respective coverage of the bombshell. The latter outlet, however, admitted that its review of &ldquo;several of the passages highlighted by Rufo &hellip; found that Harris and O&rsquo;C. Hamilton&nbsp;failed to properly attribute&nbsp;language to sources.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legacy media are trying to discredit a report claiming Kamala Harris plagiarized parts of a co-authored book<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2355267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Kamala-Harris.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[32438,4188,11913,4633],"class_list":["post-2355266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-kamala-harris","tag-media","tag-plagiarism","tag-scandal"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Kamala-Harris.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2355266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2355267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2355266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2355266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2355266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}