The Associated Press is getting roasted after naming plagiarism a new weapon of conservatives.
On Tuesday, former Harvard University president Claudine Gay announced her resignation in the wake of plagiarism allegations — which came after she was facing criticism for her answer during a House hearing regarding antisemitism on college campuses.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the AP wrote, “Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism.”
In the article attached to the post, the AP claimed, “The plagiarism allegations came not from her academic peers but her political foes, led by conservatives who sought to oust Gay and put her career under intense scrutiny in hopes of finding a fatal flaw.”
“Her detractors charged that Gay — who has a Ph.D. in government, was a professor at Harvard and Stanford and headed Harvard’s largest division before being promoted — got the top job in large part because she is a Black woman,” it added.
The outlet also claimed the “campaign against Gay and other Ivy League presidents has become part of a broader right-wing effort to remake higher education, which has often been seen as a bastion of liberalism.”
It did not take long for users on X to roast the idea of plagiarism being used as a weapon against the president of a prestigious university.
https://twitter.com/emzanotti/status/1742553512695705677
https://twitter.com/SonofHas/status/1742551384778584455
However, some such as Ibram X. Kendi, the head of the BU Center for Antiracist Research, argued the story “is journalism” because it got “closer to what truly happened and why.”