It would be ironic if it were not not from a journalist

The members of the media sure do enjoy talking about and reporting on themselves. (Reminder: Jim Acosta’s book arrives this coming June). Jill Abramson, formerly of the New York Times and currently of Harvard has a new book out, “Merchants Of Truth”. In it she details the course taken in the new era of digital media of two stalwart outlets — The NY Times, and Washington Post — and two new media outlets — BuzzFeed, and Vice.

As she is currently making the media rounds to promote the release Abrams is having to answer some rather pointed charges. “I endeavored to accurately and properly give attribution,” she says in one tweet, “to the hundreds of sources that were part of my research.” She follows with another; “I take seriously the issues raised and will review the passages in question.” What Jill is responding to here is that the accusation of plagiarism has reared up from one of her subjects, Vice.

Michael C. Moynihan has presented the case that passages in Abramson’s book are wholly lifted from other sources.The journalist has taken a rather defensive position, and tries to dismiss this as nothing more than lashing out by a scorned subject. “The attacks on my book from some @vicenews reflect their unhappiness with what I consider a balanced portrayal.

Except these are not simply accusations. A case has actually been made. Moynihan is a correspondent for Vice News Tonight, the news outlet’s program appearing on HBO. In a detailed thread Moynihan has set out numerous examples pulled from “Merchants Of Truth” that seem lifted and unattributed. He sets the table with how the inspection began from the side of Vice.

So…Jill Abramson's book has finally hit bookstore shelves. A few weeks ago, reading a galley copy, I noticed an egregious error about my colleague @adrs. She tweeted it out, a shit storm followed, Abramson corrected the mistake.

— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) February 6, 2019

*All three* chapters on Vice were clotted with mistakes. Lots of them. The truth promised in Merchants of Truth was often not true. While trying to corroborate certain claims, I noticed that it also contained…plagiarized passages.

— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) February 6, 2019

Abramson has recently given some insight to what one main problem might be. In an interview with The Cut she revealed her note-taking process thusly: “I do not record. I’ve never recorded. I’m a very fast note-taker. When someone kind of says the “it” thing that I have really wanted, I don’t start scribbling right away. I have an almost photographic memory and so I wait a beat or two while they’re onto something else, and then I write down the previous thing they said.”

Far be it from me to say this is a recipe for journalistic disaster, but how many problems are in this brief snippet?! And how exactly doess a photographic memory get applied towards what was spoken?

This deeply flawed methodology seems to have found its way into her book, and Moynihan picked up on it. He proceeds to provide a tally of multiple examples where either whole passages are lifted from outside sources, or the slightest modifications are made to appear as original thought.

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 passage, on former Vice News editor Jason Mojica, is lifted from a 2010 Time Out magazine piece, with small modifications: https://t.co/csNoONZQhX pic.twitter.com/aiQzwKEStl

— 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

As can be seen, these are not selected, random phrases that can be interpreted. These are wholesale entries provided, with select modifications seemingly made to veil the pilfering of passages. Moynihan has more.

This example is from one source–the New Yorker again–though the two sentences are separated by a page.https://t.co/Ux6gdDO9Qg pic.twitter.com/m3dnsQaOmv

— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) February 6, 2019

There’s lesser stuff too; still problematic. At various points in Merchants of Truth, rather than toil in the archives, reading old issues of the magazine or watching old Vice videos, Abramson liberally borrows from those who have: https://t.co/Ux6gdDO9Qg pic.twitter.com/mEvufhFJ3J

— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) February 6, 2019

The irony turns dark here, as there is the seeming use of plagiarizing in a segment where Abrams is discussing, of all things, the ethics of her profession.

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

Abramson has denied the entries are cribbed in any fashion. Her publisher, Simon & Schuster, issued this non-denial statement in response to the allegations:

The evidence remains to be fully vetted, but so far it looks rather damning. What has to be chilling for S & S here is the detail Moynihan gave, that these attribution problems he is citing came only from the segment concerning his news outlet. He did not comb through the entire volume for additional examples.

The hilarity that a writing professor and former journalist would resort to the most base crime of journalism, and do so in a book that purportedly explores the state of fact-finding in contemporary media, is almost too rich to savor. That she did so and still delivers a tone of condescension towards her subject matter takes that irony over the top.

As the Vice reporter closes out, all of the issues are self-evident. Michael Moynihan offers up this nice mic drop.

The book ends with a final wag of the finger, reminding me that my colleagues apparently don’t possess “the expertise to compete on the biggest news stories.” If Abramson is the arbiter of ethics & expertise, I think we’re doing just fine.

— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) February 6, 2019