Why the Harvard Plagiarism Scandal Is So Irresistible

I have some sympathy for the news watchers who are out there wondering why the story of former Harvard president Claudine Gay being fired for academic plagiarism is such a big story, taking up so much space in the A section of the New York Times over the past several weeks. The Ukraine war has taken an ugly turn. The freedom of the seas is imperiled by the Houthi pirate state. We have seen an unprecedented shift in the politics about Israel in several countries, for the worse in the United States, but for the better, perhaps, in France and throughout Europe.

Those news watchers are right that this should have been a short news cycle. Upon the surfacing of so much borrowed work in her meager academic product, President Gay should have been quietly let go, immediately. The reason this is a drawn-out story is that she wasn’t, which means something is going on at Harvard besides upholding the high academic standards on which its reputation depends.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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I have some sympathy for the news watchers who are out there wondering why the story of former Harvard president Claudine Gay being fired for academic plagiarism is such a big story, taking up so much space in the A section of the New York Times over the past several weeks. The Ukraine war has taken an ugly turn. The freedom of the seas is imperiled by the Houthi pirate state. We have seen an unprecedented shift in the politics about Israel in several countries, for the worse in the United States, but for the better, perhaps, in France and throughout Europe.

Those news watchers are right that this should have been a short news cycle. Upon the surfacing of so much borrowed work in her meager academic product, President Gay should have been quietly let go, immediately. The reason this is a drawn-out story is that she wasn’t, which means something is going on at Harvard besides upholding the high academic standards on which its reputation depends.