opinion
The Associated Press is doing its best to convince readers that the barbaric act of “scalping” is the product of “white colonizers.”
The Associated Press was widely criticized for an article published Wednesday that claimed Harvard University President Claudine Guy's resignation was the result of conservatives using plagiarism as a weapon.
In fact, Gay was fired for tolerating anti-Semitic protests on campus that eventually snowballed into dozens of allegations that she took work away from her colleagues without attribution.
Somehow, the Associated Press decided Complaints Plagiarism is a weapon, not the act of plagiarism itself. More like complaining about crimes in your area – complaints are “weapons”, but actual crimes, let's not talk about them.
The original headline reads: “Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism.”
After admitting that the story “did not meet our standards,” the headline was changed to — “Plagiarism charges bring down Harvard president. Conservative attack helped fuel outrage” — which is essentially the same thing.
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The Associated Press quietly adjusts its description of scalping
In the same article, the Associated Press laughably described the term “scalping” as if it had been invented, or at least was a procedure used mostly by “white colonizers.”
The comment was in reference to political activist Christopher Rufo, who wrote “scalping” on social media after Gay announced her resignation.
“On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote the phrase SCALPED, as if gay people were a trophy for violence, evoking a horrific practice followed by white colonists who sought to eliminate Native Americans,” the site wrote.
It's a complete rewriting of the history of the Americas, but apart from that, they succeeded.
After being mocked online for their interpretation of the scalping policy, the Associated Press quietly edited the statement, and it didn't fare much better.
In fact, all they did was add the phrase “It is also used by some tribes against their enemies” at the end of their original statement.
It still ignores the fact that scalping in the Americas originated mostly from the practices of Native American tribes, and was later imitated by European colonists on the continent.
The Associated Press tried to portray it as having been invented by colonists, and when that didn't work, they edited it to make it look as if the colonists were the main practitioners while “some tribes” also used the technique sparingly.
RELATED: DeSantis slams AP for pushing 'false narrative' — defends criticism of his press secretary
More edits to the article
The Associated Press has also updated the content of the article to better reflect the complexities of the situation. For example, they included more context about the controversy surrounding Jay's resignation and the accusations of plagiarism against her.
Lead's original paragraph read: “The fall of Harvard's president has heightened the threat of exposure of plagiarism, a cardinal sin in academia, as a potential new weapon in conservative attacks on higher education.”
Now it reads: “American higher education has long viewed plagiarism as a cardinal sin. Accusations of academic dishonesty have devastated the careers of faculty and undergraduates alike.”
In 2021, the Associated Press received backlash when CEO Daisy Verasingham attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' press secretary, saying she had engaged in “harassing behavior” toward one of her reporters.
DeSantis responded by advising the AP not to spread “false narrative(s).”
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