CIRCLING BACK

C-Suite Civil War Erupts Over Business Insider Plagiarism Story: Report

Business Insider’s parent company said that it was going to review the outlet’s story about the plagiarism allegations, despite the fact that its reporting had not been disputed.

A Business Insider investigation that found billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman’s wife committed numerous instances of academic plagiarism has thrown the outlet’s parent company into upheaval, with its leadership reportedly at war over the allegations. Semafor reported on Sunday that top-level executives at Axel Springer, the German company that owns Business Insider, have argued over whether Ackman’s wife, the American-Israeli designer Neri Oxman, “was fair game for reporting, and have been concerned that the report could be construed as antisemitic and anti-Zionist.” An Axel Springer spokesperson said earlier on Sunday that though the facts had not been disputed, “questions” had been raised about “the motivation and the process” behind Business Insider’s reporting in recent days. The company plans to “take a couple of days to review the processes around these stories to ensure that our standards as well as our journalistic values have been upheld,” the spokesperson said.