Following Plagiarism Accusations, Jill Abramson Says She’ll ‘Review The Passages In Question’
Hours after saying she’d stand behind her new book 100 percent following accusations of that Merchants of Truth included numerous instances of plagiarism, former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson said she took the allegations seriously and would “review the passages in question.”
In a series of tweets early Wednesday evening, Vice News reporter Michael Moynihan detailed several examples of what he said were blatant cases of Abramson plagiarizing others’ work in her book. Noting that chapters the famed editor had devoted to his outlet were riddled with errors, Moynihan stated that he further noticed that passages had been plagiarized.
Moynihan also highlighted that the examples he found were only in those three chapters, leaving open the possibility that the book may be absolutely littered with writing lifted from others.
The following examples from the final book—not the galley—are only from the Vice chapters (I didn’t check the others). So let’s begin…Here is Abramson on Gavin McInnes (whom she interviewed) and the Ryerson Review of Journalism https://t.co/hx0XcyZ89k pic.twitter.com/qroN59gyVk
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) February 6, 2019
This paragraph can be sourced to two places: a *masters thesis* and a 2013 New Yorker piece by Lizzie Widdicombe https://t.co/ZWX5RgKxlahttps://t.co/Ux6gdDO9Qg pic.twitter.com/tSIKyRoKDP
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) February 6, 2019
Here Abramson–in a treatise on journalistic ethics–copies a passage from…the Columbia Journalism Reviewhttps://t.co/mZZlA4odqw pic.twitter.com/gZVxQ1dc3Z
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) February 6, 2019
Another writer, author Ian Frisch, also pinpointed passages in Abramson’s book that he claimed she too directly from a magazine he ran earlier this decade.
THREAD: Jill Abramson plagiarized me at least seven times in her new book, Merchants of Truth.
— Ian Frisch (@IanFrisch) February 7, 2019
Shortly after Moynihan tweeted his accusation, Abramson appeared on Fox News’ The Story and was asked by host Martha MacCallum to respond to the allegations. “I certainly didn’t plagiarize in my book,” she responded, adding that there are over 70 pages of footnotes showing where she got all her information.
Pressed further and asked if it were possible that this is a footnote issue, Abramson denied that as a possibility and said she stood by her work 100 percent. Furthermore, she noted that some Vice employees were unhappy with her book but also said she hadn’t seen Moynihan’s Twitter thread, as it had only gone up minutes earlier.
A couple of hours following her Fox News hit, Abramson tweeted that the “attacks” on her book reflected Vice staffers’ “unhappiness with what I consider a balanced portrayal.” She then addressed the allegations themselves.
I endeavored to accurately and properly give attribution to the hundreds of sources that were part of my research
— Jill Abramson (@JillAbramson) February 7, 2019
I take seriously the issues raised and will review the passages in question
— Jill Abramson (@JillAbramson) February 7, 2019
Her publisher Simon & Schuster also released a statement, claiming that all four news outlets covered in the book had been given ample time to comment on the content before publication and that Abramson had made changes where deemed necessary. They added: “If upon further examination changes or attributions are deemed necessary we stand ready to work with the author in making those revisions.”
Statement from Simon & Schuster on Jill Abramson's book: "If upon further examination changes or attributions are deemed necessary we stand ready to work with the author in making those revisions." pic.twitter.com/uHnERiyA43
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) February 7, 2019
Watch the clip above, via Fox News.
