Ripe for the ratio, the Associated Press got called out by Community Notes and X users for their “conservative weapon” take on plagiarism.
“You’ve all lost your f*cking minds.”
Soaking up the small victories, conservatives celebrated Tuesday when news broke that Harvard University president Claudine Gay had announced her resignation. Seen by many as overdue after her congressional testimony regarding campus antisemitism and subsequent revelations about plagiarism, the AP had a wholly different take that leaned wholly into the “Republicans pounce” narrative.
“Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism,” came the headline of the article that went on to state, “The downfall of Harvard’s president has elevated the threat of unearthing plagiarism, a cardinal sin in academia, as a possible new weapon in conservative attacks on higher education.”
Anyone familiar with the AP Style Guide’s frequent woke updates, satisfying society’s ever-shifting Overton Window toward leftism, would find little surprise in the news organization running such a piece.
That fact didn’t detract from the devastating Community Notes context slapped onto the post that read, “Plagiarism is a breach of rules for Harvard University…Claudine Gay was ultimately forced to resign for a series of breaches of this policy…Plagiarism — or application of the rules around plagiarism — therefore cannot be considered a ‘weapon’.”
Within the piece, the AP endeavored to massage the academic wrongdoing from Gay by referring to her instances of plagiarism as “long stretches of prose that mirror language from other published works” and stating how Harvard itself had dubbed the passages “duplicative language.”
In citing defenders of the resigned president, the AP even suggested the likelihood that such a practice was rampant in the continually-devolving halls of higher education that have put agenda ahead of academics.
Referencing Trinity College historian Davarian Baldwin, the article stated, “Gay clearly made mistakes, he said, but with the spread of software designed to detect plagiarism, it wouldn’t be hard to find similar overlap in works by other presidents and professors.”
Further, defending plagiarism, of which their own handbook states “We do not plagiarize, meaning that we do not take the work of others and pass it off as our own,” was not the only angle capitalized on in the piece as racism was also raised as a serious concern.
End Wokeness pointed out on X, “AP says that scalping came from whites and claims plagiarism is a right-wing weapon. All in a single article. The media is beyond parody.”
The social media account shared a screengrab from the piece that read, “Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who helped orchestrate the effort, celebrated her departure as a win in his campaign against elite institutions of higher education. On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote ‘SCALPED,’ as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans.”
AP says that scalping came from whites and claims plagiarism is a right-wing weapon. All in a single article.
The media is beyond parody. pic.twitter.com/zDXHfpKuB5
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 3, 2024
Likening the arguments to a villain unmasked by the Scooby gang, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R) communications director Abigail Jackson mocked, “‘And we would’ve gotten away with it too! If it hadn’t been for those darned conservatives and their… *checks notes* pointing out that our top academic university president plagiarized’…Yes [because] it’s totally the conservatives fault.”
“And we would’ve gotten away with it too! If it hadn’t been for those darned conservatives and their… *checks notes* pointing out that our top academic university president plagiarized”
Yes bc it’s totally the conservatives fault.
— Abigail Jackson (@abigailmarone) January 3, 2024
Oh no! Those dastardly conservatives have infiltrated your organization pic.twitter.com/qVIOCUpdvQ
— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) January 3, 2024
You’ve all lost your fucking minds.
Having standards and expecting people to meet them is not “a conservative weapon”.
— Billy Bragg (@Serena_Partrick) January 3, 2024
When I was in college, plagiarism was bad, no matter what race you are. Has that changed?
— Josh Power (@JoshPower80) January 3, 2024
How many conservatives did it take to force Claudine Gay to plagiarize 50 times? Was it more than 100,000? What specific weapons were used? Writing my thesis on this.
— Savannah (@BasedSavannah) January 3, 2024
And, once again, @CommunityNotes for the win.
Gay repeatedly violated Harvard’s rules against plagiarism. Source: Harvard.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2024
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
- Rogan fired up that liberal policies are allowing monsters to eat our house pets - December 17, 2025
- Customer bullies Target employee over Charlie Kirk shirt, but it doesn’t go quite as planned - December 17, 2025
- Merrick Garland lied about Mar-a-Lago raid recently declassified emails show - December 17, 2025
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
BPR INSIDER COMMENTS
Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!
