New York Times Makes Up Phrase to Avoid Saying 'Plagiarism' in Headline About Claudine Gay

There was a time, not too long ago when words were generally agreed upon to have a hard definition. Those who are old enough will remember that there were companies whose entire business model was centered around collecting all of the words that people might want to use, printing them up in an alphabetized list along with that word part of speech and its definition, and then selling them to people so we could all have a common understanding of the meaning of all of the words. Wild, right?

But now we live in the age of 'post truth', when if we don't like the way a word sounds or what it implies about people we like we can just pretend that word doesn't exist and come up with something else that doesn't have the same connotations that we find... problematic. At the forefront of this effort, we find the New York Times, torturing the English language in an attempt to soften the news about Harvard President Claudine Gay and her apparent habit of liberally borrowing from or outright stealing chunks of other people's writing.

The NYT asked Harvard faculty:

“Few of those who saw the accusations as potentially serious were willing to speak on the record. But some who said they were troubled also noted that students were often punished, sometimes harshly, for similar infractions.” pic.twitter.com/UVOx0waszB
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) December 21, 2023

'Duplicative Language' is sure a weird way to say 'plagiarism', isn't it? Of course, it's unclear if the 'duplicative language' phrasing came from Harvard or if the New York Times came up with that one on their own, but really it's six of one, half dozen of another. If this was the language Harvard used the New York Times should have certainly known better than to parrot it. Had a Republican tried to obfuscate meaning in this manner no one believes the NYT would have gone along with it without question.

Hear that, parents and students? When you are accused of plagiarism, argue that it’s a case of “duplicative language.” Depending on your racial demographics and/or previously espoused political views….you’ll be fine!

And you wonder why parents are revolting against schools. https://t.co/81vyQWVDz2
— Adam Yankay (@ItsAMrY) December 21, 2023

It's a can't-miss idea!

Harvard is digging itself into a very deep hole in their efforts to defend Claudine Gay, and much of the traditional media seems to be intent on finding ways to dig itself into the hole with them. President Gay became a cultural flash point because of her horrendous testimony before the House of Representatives, sure, but we've moved beyond that now to questions regarding the way academia acts and how it polices itself, especially at the 'elite' Ivy League level. At a time when higher educational institutions have already seen public faith in them fall to historic lows according to some polling, it's hard to see how these institutions can possibly go on acting like this without tanking their reputation, and credibility, any further.

But by golly, they sure seem intent on finding out!

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