Billionaire has a fit

[KMFJD]

This is an interesting story, Bill Ackman was the person that lead a witch hunt to get Harvard President Claudine Gay fired because of Harvard students pro-palestinian protests
She resigned after it was found that she plagiarized her thesis

~Ackman “used revelations unearthed by right-wing activists that Harvard president Claudine Gay had plagiarized dozens of times across the body of her academic work to underscore his calls for her resignation,” wrote the article, noting that Ackman had initially sought Gay’s removal related to her handling of anti-Semitism and pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

Well it turns out his wife has been found plagiarizing and he's very mad that people are writing articles about this, so mad that he's called the owners and they are reviewing their editorial policies...

‘How Billionaires Flex Their Power’: Business Insider’s ‘Review’ of Story on Bill Ackman’s Wife Sparks Fierce Backlash

Ben Mullin tweeted Axel Springer’s initial statement, which led to a quick backlash among many journalists and media observers.

www.mediaite.com

https://archive.is/20240106025019/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/us/plagiarism-bill-ackman-neri-oxman-claudine-gay-harvard.html

~Neri Oxman, a former M.I.T. professor, is accused of copying from Wikipedia. Her husband, Bill Ackman, vowed to check the work of the entire M.I.T. faculty.

Well We’re All Going To Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social)

The greatest injustice a rich white dude can imagine is if he or his property are subjected to the same treatment he gives to others [contains quote post or other embedded content]

bsky.app

 

[brycejones]

Yeah, how dare you hold his wife to the same standard.

 

[esquared]

Ha ha ha ha.
Rules are for thee not me (or mine).

 

[Zorba]

Well they completely devalued the term fake news and groomer, so I guess plagiarism is next. Yeah, academics shouldn't lift quotes without citations, but I have a feeling if you did a fishing expedition for this you'd catch a lot of small nothing burger fish and very cases of actually consequence. This is just the new right wing attack on higher education that people will think seems reasonable at first.

 

[brycejones]

Well they completely devalued the term fake news and groomer, so I guess plagiarism is next. Yeah, academics shouldn't lift quotes without citations, but I have a feeling if you did a fishing expedition for this you'd catch a lot of small nothing burger fish and very cases of actually consequence. This is just the new right wing attack on higher education that people will think seems reasonable at first.

You can’t trust what academics say because they cheat…::

 

[Pens1566]

Well they completely devalued the term fake news and groomer, so I guess plagiarism is next. Yeah, academics shouldn't lift quotes without citations, but I have a feeling if you did a fishing expedition for this you'd catch a lot of small nothing burger fish and very cases of actually consequence. This is just the new right wing attack on higher education that people will think seems reasonable at first.

Yeah, I heard a good read/analysis on it from an academic's perspective yesterday that made a clear cut distinction between sloppy or careless citations (what apparently went on here) vs outright plagiarism. The difference being that the latter is more about attempting to steal or take credit for someone else's thoughts or work.

Having said that, what's good for the goose is good for the gander and this rich fuck's wife should have to suffer the same consequences as he brought on to the Harvard president. He's looking like a whiny bitch in all of this.

 

[fskimospy]

Nothing enrages billionaires more than when the rules everyone else has to play by are applied to them.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Yeah, I heard a good read/analysis on it from an academic's perspective yesterday that made a clear cut distinction between sloppy or careless citations (what apparently went on here) vs outright plagiarism. The difference being that the latter is more about attempting to steal or take credit for someone else's thoughts or work.

Having said that, what's good for the goose is good for the gander and this rich fuck's wife should have to suffer the same consequences as he brought on to the Harvard president. He's looking like a whiny bitch in all of this.

What's really great is, the more this comes up, the less impact it'll have, and the more nobody will give a shit, so we can go back to focusing on how utterly trash the modern conservative movement is.

 

[Greenman]

This is an interesting story, Bill Ackman was the person that lead a witch hunt to get Harvard President Claudine Gay fired because of Harvard students pro-palestinian protests
She resigned after it was found that she plagiarized her thesis

~Ackman “used revelations unearthed by right-wing activists that Harvard president Claudine Gay had plagiarized dozens of times across the body of her academic work to underscore his calls for her resignation,” wrote the article, noting that Ackman had initially sought Gay’s removal related to her handling of anti-Semitism and pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

Well it turns out his wife has been found plagiarizing and he's very mad that people are writing articles about this, so mad that he's called the owners and they are reviewing their editorial policies...

‘How Billionaires Flex Their Power’: Business Insider’s ‘Review’ of Story on Bill Ackman’s Wife Sparks Fierce Backlash

Ben Mullin tweeted Axel Springer’s initial statement, which led to a quick backlash among many journalists and media observers.

www.mediaite.com

https://archive.is/20240106025019/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/us/plagiarism-bill-ackman-neri-oxman-claudine-gay-harvard.html

~Neri Oxman, a former M.I.T. professor, is accused of copying from Wikipedia. Her husband, Bill Ackman, vowed to check the work of the entire M.I.T. faculty.

Well We’re All Going To Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social)

The greatest injustice a rich white dude can imagine is if he or his property are subjected to the same treatment he gives to others [contains quote post or other embedded content]

bsky.app

I don't see any down side here. If they were all plagiarizing others work then they can all get dumped on the scrap heap. Everyone wins.

 

[K1052]

Were I a billionaire I would simply chose not to go totally fucking insane that the school I gave some stock to didn't get the best possible return on it. A dollar figure that's basically negligible to both parties involved and that my panties are so in a twist over that I've inadvertently humiliated my wife publicly and continue to do so.

 

[fskimospy]

I don't see any down side here. If they were all plagiarizing others work then they can all get dumped on the scrap heap. Everyone wins.

It's one of those things where really neither person did anything particularly egregious (at least from what's come out so far). It's basically boilerplate language copied and pasted, it's not the meat of the work for either person.

That being said, Ackman should have thought about that before wading in and demanding Gay's firing over it - now he gets to reap what he has sown.

 

[Greenman]

It's one of those things where really neither person did anything particularly egregious (at least from what's come out so far). It's basically boilerplate language copied and pasted, it's not the meat of the work for either person.

That being said, Ackman should have thought about that before wading in and demanding Gay's firing over it - now he gets to reap what he has sown.

I've only taken a cursory look at the evidence, and I agree with you that it seemed more like an "oops" than an effort to take credit for the work of others.
I still don't mind them bitch slapping each other into oblivion.

 

[Pens1566]

It's one of those things where really neither person did anything particularly egregious (at least from what's come out so far). It's basically boilerplate language copied and pasted, it's not the meat of the work for either person.

That being said, Ackman should have thought about that before wading in and demanding Gay's firing over it - now he gets to reap what he has sown.

Yeah, Ackman is definitely the asshole in all of this. At least so far.

 

[HomerJS]

Neri Oxman no consequences fir plagiarism.

Claudia Gay? Different standard and attack orchestrated by the husband of Neri Oxman. Bill Ackman cries don't attack my wife.

Good ole' American standards.

 

[fskimospy]

Were I a billionaire I would simply chose not to go totally fucking insane that the school I gave some stock to didn't get the best possible return on it. A dollar figure that's basically negligible to both parties involved and that my panties are so in a twist over that I've inadvertently humiliated my wife publicly and continue to do so.

Yeah you would think his 'fundamentally introverted' wife might not be a super big fan of him publicly shitting his pants like this.

 

[K1052]

Yeah you would think his 'fundamentally introverted' wife might not be a super big fan of him publicly shitting his pants like this.

As a strong introvert myself this would be "Exercise a modicum of self control or we are getting a divorce." territory.

 

[nakedfrog]

Fuck the oligarchy.

 

[MrSquished]

this whole campaign was a witch hunt against any powerful woman of color that is not a right wing kool aid drinker

 

[woolfe9998]

It's one of those things where really neither person did anything particularly egregious (at least from what's come out so far). It's basically boilerplate language copied and pasted, it's not the meat of the work for either person.

That being said, Ackman should have thought about that before wading in and demanding Gay's firing over it - now he gets to reap what he has sown.

I've read a bunch of articles on this. Some characterize it that way, as cut and paste boilerplate stuff. Others say at least some of it is more serious. I'm not that interested, however, in how it's described by journalists or conservative activists. I'd be more interested to see a side by side comparison of let's say, the top 2 or 3 incidents claimed as plagiarism by her critics. But I can't find a single actual example anywhere online. I just don't trust how anyone describes it and would rather see it myself. It's just too political to take anyone's word.

 

[fskimospy]

I've read a bunch of articles on this. Some characterize it that way, as cut and paste boilerplate stuff. Others say at least some of it is more serious. I'm not that interested, however, in how it's described by journalists or conservative activists. I'd be more interested to see a side by side comparison of let's say, the top 2 or 3 incidents claimed as plagiarism by her critics. But I can't find a single actual example anywhere online. I just don't trust how anyone describes it and would rather see it myself. It's just too political to take anyone's word.

I saw one example and it did not stand out to me as notable. I'll see if I can remember where I saw it.

 

[manly]

I've read a bunch of articles on this. Some characterize it that way, as cut and paste boilerplate stuff. Others say at least some of it is more serious. I'm not that interested, however, in how it's described by journalists or conservative activists. I'd be more interested to see a side by side comparison of let's say, the top 2 or 3 incidents claimed as plagiarism by her critics. But I can't find a single actual example anywhere online. I just don't trust how anyone describes it and would rather see it myself. It's just too political to take anyone's word.

I've read a piece by one university academic with experience at Harvard, and it's a slam dunk case of plagiarism. Even if that wasn't the real intent, a Harvard student would be slammed if they were caught with the same basket of offenses. It wasn't an innocuous oversight or two. The curious part is that Dr. Gay's thesis was very highly regarded at Stanford, and even won a prestigious award. But that was a while ago, and they didn't have the same computing resources that are being used today to ferret out academic sloppiness. It can still be a great paper, even if she copied some bits of it. 😑

This isn't the original piece, but reaches the same conclusion:

Claudine Gay’s Resignation Was Overdue — The Atlantic

Her accusers acted in bad faith, but they’re not wrong.

apple.news

Original article with side by side comparison:

Harvard Has a Veritas Problem — The Atlantic

President Claudine Gay is in a tough spot. The Harvard Corporation deserves to be in a much tougher spot.

apple.news

(If you're on an Apple device, the News app should get you to the full article. Apologies otherwise as The Atlantic is mostly paid content. For the record, they lean left.)

I couldn't slog through Neri Oxman's thesis (the abstract was already brutal); but I've seen some commentary that it's absolute rubbish and her PhD was basically a gift in exchange for Ackman's millions.