WHOOPS

Washington Examiner Apologizes for ‘Inadvertently’ Lifting From NYT Story

Several paragraphs had been lifted word for word, in what the conservative news outlet says was an ‘editing error.’

The conservative-leaning Washington Examiner issue an apology on Sunday after lifting entire sections of a recent New York Times article and “inadvertently” presenting it as its own reporting.

Plagiarism allegations first surfaced on Twitter, where NBC News reporter David Gura pointed out the uncanny similarities between a Washington Examiner piece by foreign affairs reporter Joel Gehrke titled “Khashoggi Crisis Is a Reckoning for Jared Kushner” and a New York Times article published two days earlier, “Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk.”

The Examiner piece featured at least four paragraphs that appeared to have been plagiarized straight from the Times, word for word.

Toby Harnden, managing editor of the Examiner, issued a statement later calling the apparent plagiarism an “editing error.”

“The Washington Examiner apologizes for inadvertently including paragraphs from a New York Times story in an Examiner story about Jared Kushner and Saudi Arabia,” Harnden wrote.

He went on to blame the error on a “note” he said he’d placed in an unpublished story during the editing process that “included a section from a story by the New York Times.”

“The note was intended to inform the reporter and give him an example of the kind of approach he could consider in the Examiner story. The note was not clear, however, and the reporter thought I had rewritten part of his story,” he said.

The story was subsequently corrected to omit the New York Times’ text.

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Allison QuinnNews Editor

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