“There was no unfair bias”

On January 7, MIT professor and entrepreneur Neri Oxman was accused of plagiarism in a Business Insider article. The story came after former Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned from her position over similar accusations. Oxman’s husband, Bill Ackman, was among those who led the march that led to Gay’s ouster. On Sunday, Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng defended both the accuracy and motivations of the outlet’s investigation.

In a letter published on Insider’s website, Peng defended the outlet against accusations that the Oxman investigation was unfair. In a series of bullet points, she wrote: “There was no unfair bias or personal, political and/or religious motivation in the pursuit of these stories.”

“These stories were newsworthy and Neri Oxman, who has a public profile as a prominent intellectual and has been the subject of and participated in media coverage, is a fair subject,” Peng continued.

“The process we followed in reporting, editing and reviewing the stories was sound, as was the timing. Through their representative, Oxman and Ackman responded that they had made the decision not to comment.

Peng added: “The stories are accurate and the facts are well documented. »

Billionaire Ackman then responded on social media, writing: “Business Insider is done for. You’ll hear from us in a few weeks. It’ll look something like this: On my mark, unleash hell.”

He linked to a clip from the movie “Gladiator” containing this quote.

Ackman had disputed the results of Business Insider’s investigation, which found that Oxman “stole sentences and entire paragraphs from Wikipedia, other researchers, and technical documents in his academic writings.” In a long tweet posted on January 9, Ackman wrote that he “personally disputed the facts (as well as the reporting process) of Business Insider’s initial stories during a roughly hour-long conversation with a Business Insider executive Sunday morning beginning at 10:01 a.m.”

Peng’s letter reads in full:

“We are a journalism organization with high standards and a commitment to truth and fairness. Regarding the recent reporting on Neri Oxman, we think it is important to share the following:

• There was no unfair bias or personal, political and/or religious motivation in pursuing these stories.

• These stories were worth reporting and Neri Oxman, who enjoys public prominence as a leading intellectual and who has been the subject of and participated in media coverage, is a very legitimate subject.

• The process we followed for reporting, editing and reviewing the stories was sound, as was the timing. Through their representatives, Oxman and Ackman responded that they had made the decision not to comment.

• The stories are accurate and the facts well documented.

Business Insider supports and enables our journalists to share newsworthy, fact-based stories with our readers, and we do so with editorial independence.

We remain faithful to our writing and our reporting, which will continue.

Barbara Peng
CEO, Business Insider“

This story has been updated.

The article Business Insider CEO Defends Neri Oxman Plagiarism Coverage: ‘There Was No Unfair Bias’ appeared first on TheWrap.