Morning Must-Read: Margaret Sullivan: On Alexandra Alter, Craig Shirley, and Rick Perlstein

Margaret Sullivan: On Alexandra Alter, Craig Shirley, and Rick Perlstein: Was an Accusation of Plagiarism Really a Political Attack? “There’s a problem here…

…An article about polarized reaction to a high-profile book is, of course, fair game. But the attention given to the plagiarism accusation is not. Yes, the claim was ‘out there’ but so are smears of all kinds as well as claims that the earth is flat and that climate change is unfounded….. By taking it seriously, The Times conferred a legitimacy on the accusation…. And while it is true that Mr. Perlstein and his publisher were given plenty of opportunity to respond, that doesn’t help much…. The Times is saying: Here’s an accusation; here’s a denial; and, heck, we don’t really know…. Readers frequently complain to me about this he said, she said false equivalency — and for good reason. So I’m with the critics. The Times article amplified a damaging accusation of plagiarism without establishing its validity and doing so in a way that is transparent to the reader. The standard has to be higher.