The Associated Press is doing its best to convince readers that the barbaric act of “scalping” is a product of “white colonists.” The AP was widely panned for an article published on Wednesday that claimed that the resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay was a result of conservatives weaponizing plagiarism. In reality, Gay was ousted because of her tolerance for anti-Semitic protests on campus. Somehow, the Associated Press decided complaints of plagiarism are weapons, not the act of plagiarizing itself.
After admitting the story “doesn’t meet our standards,” the headline was changed to – “Plagiarism charges downed Harvard’s president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage” – which is essentially the same thing.
In that same article, the Associated Press laughably described the term “scalping” as if it was invented, or at least was an action used predominantly, by “white colonists.” The commentary was in reference to political activist Christopher Rufo, who wrote “scalped” on social media after Gay announced her resignation.
The Associated Press attempted to portray it as having been invented by colonists, and when that didn’t work, they edited it to make it appear as if colonists were the main practitioners while “some tribes” also used the technique sparingly.
The Associated Press also updated the article’s content to better reflect the complexities of the situation. For example, they included more context on the controversy surrounding Gay’s resignation and the accusations of plagiarism against her. In 2021, the Associated Press received backlash when CEO Daisy Veerasingham tattled on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s press secretary, saying that she engaged in “harassing behavior” toward one of their reporters.
