Jill Abramson: Former New York Times editor accused of plagiarism over new book

Abramson said she will review the accused passages

Jill Abramson (Getty Images)

Jill Abramson has been accused of plagiarising sections of her new book Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts, an allegation the former New York Times executive editor denies.

On Wednesday, Ms Abramson was confronted about the allegations—which were popularised by VICE correspondent Michael Moynihan’s viral tweets earlier that day—while appearing on Fox News.

Host Martha McCallum asked Ms Abramson if she had any comment on the several examples of alleged plagiarism Mr Moynihan brought forward. The 64-year-old author said: “I really don’t.”

“All I can tell you is I certainly didn’t plagiarise in my book and there’s 70 pages of footnotes showing where I got the information,” she added.

Simon and Schuster—Ms Abramson’s publisher—described the book, published this month, as a “definitive report on the disruption of the news media over the last decade”, focusing on on the New York Times, BuzzFeed, VICE and the Washington Post “as they plow through a revolution in technology, economics, standards, commitment, and endurance that pits old vs new media”.

Mr Moynihan’s tweets on Wednesday highlighted three chapters where Ms Abramson wrote on VICE, and pointed out to examples where languages seem to have been copied from articles published in the New Yorker, Columbia Journalism Review and Time Out.

The VICE correspondent said there were “plenty more” cases of “enormous factual errors, other cribbed passages, single or unsourced claims.”

Ms Abramson defended these allegations on Fox News by claiming that Mr Moynihan’s complaint is based on his disapproval of the author’s portrayal of VICE.

“Many people from VICE have been taking issue with the book,” she said. “I think they don’t like the portrayal of Vice although I think it’s a very balanced portrait and I have a lot of praise for some of their journalists and some of their stories. I like their fresh approach to news.”

Mr Moynihan fired back at the former NYT’s editor Fox News interview on Twitter, pointing out there are several examples of alleged plagiarism he cited that were not mentioned in her endnotes.

“Regardless, *even if you cite it deep in the footnotes,* it’s still plagiarism,” Mr Moynihan tweeted. “This is something the former executive editor of NYT should understand.”

Late on Wednesday night, Ms Abramson said she would look into these allegations.

“I take seriously the issues raised and will review the passages in question.”