A New York Daily News editor was fired Tuesday as a result of the fallout from claims that columnist Shaun King had plagiarized from multiple newsrooms, including the Daily Beast and FiveThirtyEight.
“We have discovered today that over the course of the past few months one of our editors has made a series of egregious and inexplicable errors,” Daily News executive editor Jim Rich said in a statement. “On at least three separate occasions, the editor deleted attribution that made it appear passages from Shaun King’s columns were not properly credited. These mistakes are unacceptable and the editor in question has been fired.”
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King, who came to prominence as one of the original Black Lives Matter activists, was accused Tuesday of lifting two paragraphs from a Daily Beast article titled “Cops Taunted Black Veteran as He Died.” King’s Daily News column even included the same typo as the Daily Beast story (misspelling “sheriff” as “sherriff”).
King immediately denied any wrongdoing, and claimed that the supposed plagiarism was the result of an editing error. He maintained on social media that the original draft of his article had made all the appropriate attributions.
King also lashed out at the Daily Beast reporter who flagged the supposed plagiarism, Justin Miller, and called him an “a—hole.”
He later produced emails showing that the original draft of his article did indeed include attribution to the Daily Beast. The Daily News later backed up King’s claim, and issued an apology to readers.
But even as King and his supervisors claimed the story amounted to nothing more than an editing error, reporters at different newsrooms began sharing what appeared to be additional examples of plagiarism, including what appeared to be a paragraph ripped directly from a FiveThirtyEight article.
Here’s Shaun King lifting an entire paragraph from FiveThirtyEight last week, without quotes or attribution. pic.twitter.com/QSp1mjzY78
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) April 19, 2016
King responding by saying that likenesses between his article and FiveThirtyEight’s work were also the result of an editing error.
The New York-based newspaper announced shortly thereafter that it had fired King’s editor, who they said was guilty of removing attribution from the columnist’s work.
Though the Daily News won’t divulge the name of the person reportedly responsible for removing attribution from King’s article, the Daily Beast’s Michael Moynihan said Tuesday that he confirmed the existence of such an employee.
Spoke to the editor fired by the @NYDailyNews in @ShaunKing mess. He took 100% responsibility for the lack of attribution.
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) April 19, 2016
Following apologies and explanations from his editors, King took something of a victory lap on Twitter, claiming his innocence and mocking those who suggested he had acted unethically.
“No. I did not plagiarize [The Daily Beast] or [FiveThirtyEight] or anyone else,” he said, producing emails showing that his original drafts had included proper attribution. “Our editorial team … has apologized to me for not properly including the attributions that I provided.”
“After I write a story, submit it to editors, and respond to any questions they have, I do not go back and read the live web version,” he continued. “Anyway, it was handled poorly by [The Daily Beast]. They should’ve contacted my editors first before blasting me on Twitter.”
He then veered off into a strange area, and suggested that Hillary Clinton, whom the Daily News has endorsed in the Democratic primary, may or may not have had something to do with the plagiarism claims.
“Also, Chelsea Clinton is on the board of the parent company of The Daily Beast. They ride hard for Hillary. Sure that played a role,” he wrote.
“Hell, I think too highly of myself, my family, this profession, and the causes I fight for to plagiarize. Take that bullsh— on somewhere,” he added. “By in large, if you think I plagiarized a damn thing, you can kiss my a—. Feel free to quote that. Those are my words too.”
Neither King nor the Daily News responded to the Washington Examiner’s in time for publication.
