The law of unintended consequences seems at play in a major way, as billionaire Hedge Fund manager and activist investor Bill Ackman is pitted against mainstream academic figures and news outlets in defense of his wife Neri Oxman.
It all started unfolding after Harvard President Claudine Gay and other University deans fell in disgrace after a catastrophic hearing in the US senate about the rampant anti-Semitism in their campuses.
Gay stick to her guns and was about to overcome the threat of dismissal, when a series of reports regarding her alleged widespread plagiarism emerged, causing her to finally resign in disgrace.
Former Harvard donor Bill Ackman was one of the main actors in the push to oust Gay, and he piled heavily on the plagiarism allegations.
That’s when Business Insider published two stories showing alleged evidence of plagiarism involving Ackerman’s wife, former MIT professor, designer and architect Neri Oxman.
Now, Business Insider’s top executive and parent company are doubling down in their reporting, stating their are ‘satisfied with the fairness and accuracy of the stories’.
New York Post reported:
“’We stand by Business Insider and its newsroom’, said a spokesman for Axel Springer, the German media company that owns the publication.”
Business Insider’s and @axelspringer liability just goes up and up and up.
This is what they consider fair, sound, accurate and well documented reporting with appropriate timing.
Incredible. https://t.co/q67ycsTmbt
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 14, 2024
Axel Springer looked into the pieces about Neri Oxman following strident complaints by Ackman, a Harvard graduate and CEO of the Pershing Square investment firm.
“He publicly campaigned against Gay, who resigned earlier this month following criticism of her answers at a congressional hearing on antisemitism and charges that her academic writing contained examples of improperly credited work.
With its stories, Business Insider raised both the idea of hypocrisy and the possibility that academic dishonesty is widespread, even among the nation’s most prominent scholars.”
Ackman’s response raised questions about the outlet’s independence.
“Business Insider and Axel Springer’s ‘liability just goes up and up and up’, Ackman said Sunday in a post on X, formerly Twitter. ‘This is what they consider fair, accurate and well-documented reporting with appropriate timing. Incredible’.”
Business Insider is toast.
You will hear from us in a few weeks.
It will look something like this:
At My Signal, Unleash Hellhttps://t.co/uIRnxFnB4g
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 14, 2024
Business Insider’s first article argued that while Ackman had used revelations about Gay’s plagiarism to attack her, its journalists ‘found a similar pattern of plagiarism’ by his wife Oxman – who was in no way involved in the controversy up until that point.
A second piece alleged that, in her 2010 doctoral dissertation at MIT, Oxman stole sentences and paragraphs from Wikipedia, fellow scholars and technical documents.
“Ackman complained that it was a low blow to attack someone’s family in such a manner and said Business Insider reporters gave him less than two hours to respond to the accusations. He suggested an editor there was an anti-Zionist. Oxman was born in Israel. The business leader reached out in protest to board members at both Business Insider and Axel Springer.”
Today (14), Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng stated ‘there was no unfair bias or personal, political and/or religious motivation in pursuit of the story’.
Peng said called stories ‘newsworthy’ and said that Oxman, with a public profile as a prominent intellectual, was fair game as a subject.
Ackman vowed revenge ‘in a few weeks’ against Business Insider, sharing on X a short video of the Gladiator movie: ‘At My Signal, Unleash Hell’.
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