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Join Telegram ChannelConservative activist Christopher Rufo on Monday accused the New York Times of undermining his exclusive article about Vice President Kamala Harris allegedly plagiarizing passages from his book “Smart on Crime: A Career Attorney's Plan to Make Us Safer.”
Rufo first reported so-called “plagiarism hunter”, Austrian professor Stefan Weber, finding on 27 occasions that Harris and his co-author had committed some form of plagiarism, writing: “24 fragments are of plagiarism from other authors, [and] 3 fragments are self-plagiarism of a work written with a co-author.”
“Overall, there is certainly a violation of standards here. Harris and his co-author have duplicated lengthy passages almost verbatim without proper citation and quotation marks, which is the textbook definition of plagiarism,” Rufo wrote.
The New York Times, however, downplayed the impact of these cases, citing only five passages from Rufo. The story was titled “Conservative Activist Seizes Passages from Harris' Book” and had three credited authors.
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Chris Rufo has reported more than two dozen instances of plagiarism in one of Vice President Kamala Harris' books. (Left: (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images), Right: (Photo by Thomas Simonetti for the Washington Post via Getty Images))
“In a review of the book, The New York Times found that none of the passages in question copied the ideas or thoughts of another writer, which is considered the most serious form of plagiarism. Instead , the sentences copy program descriptions or statistical information that appear elsewhere,” the article reads.
It also cites a plagiarism consultant, Jonathan Bailey, who said Rufo committed minor infractions and tried to “make a big deal out of it.” Bailey wrote on X on Monday that he had not done a full analysis of Harris' book.
“For those coming here from the New York Times article. I want to be clear that I have NOT conducted a full review of the book. My quotes were based on information provided to me by journalists and only talked about these passages,” he wrote. .
Rufo spoke to X after the story was published to denounce the New York Times, accusing it of distorting the story.
“Last Saturday, I provided the Times not only with my written analysis, which argues that there are 'more than a dozen,' but also with Weber's entire dossier, which included 18 allegations of varying seriousness. So, The Times deliberately withheld this crucial background information from its readers and the so-called plagiarism expert, who, based on this limited information, called it “not serious.” the point 'more than a dozen,' but instead they lied by omission,” Rufo wrote.
He also attacked the article for citing “some academics” who called his previous reporting and research racist.
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A New York Times article claimed that Rufo's cases were not an example of “the most serious form of plagiarism.” (Photo by Fox News/Joshua Comins)
Rufo wrote: “This is just a whitewash of a smear to complement the absurd headline that my reporting on a presidential candidate's plagiarism is 'seized.'[ing] “on a transgression that is 'no big deal' – in other words, portraying myself as the villain of the story, rather than plagiarizing a presidential candidate.”
He added: “My rule of working with journalists is simple: if you treat me fairly, I will treat you fairly. After the Times article was published, I called the Times reporter and editor to politely ask for a correction. Mary Suh had nothing but excuses. And so, we are going to fight for this. They should issue a correction, but even if they don't, I will correct the record publicly.
Fox News Digital reached out to The New York Times for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
In a comment to the New York Times, a Harris campaign spokesperson rejected the accusations in Rufo's report.
“This is a book that has been in print for 15 years, and the vice president has clearly cited sources and statistics in the footnotes and endnotes,” said Harris spokesperson Jamie Singer.
The Harris campaign has denied the plagiarism accusations. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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Fox News Digital has independently verified that Harris' book contains verbatim and near-verbato reproductions of a 2008 NBC News report, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice press release, a Wikipedia page and from a report by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). , among others.
Julia Johnson of Fox News contributed to this report.