AP headline screams "New Conservative Weapon Against Colleges: Plagiarism"

"Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism." 

That was the actual headline from the outraged, woke minds of mush at the Associated Press. 

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to spot the woke spin – it was the size of an EF-5 tornado. 

Of course, the real story was Professor Claudine Gay had to resign as Harvard president after nearly 50 credible accusations of plagiarism in her work surfaced. 

That was after she stunned lawmakers by refusing to say in her testimony before Congress whether calls for the genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s code of conduct.

The headline accusing conservatives of “weaponizing” plagiarism was so ludicrous that AP was subjected to a barrage of ridicule as soon as it posted the story on X.

Comments in community notes quickly illustrated how far AP had strayed from reality. Elon Musk accurately observed that AP had a bad case of woke mind virus.

The AP was shamed into changing the headline a day later (Plagiarism charges downed Harvard’s president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage) but without issuing a correction notice or posting any explanation.   

A spokesperson for AP merely said, “The story doesn’t meet our standards,” without bothering to explain or apologize. 

We are not surprised. On the Record has its own experience with AP’s gross incompetence and woke bias. OTR was the subject of an error-filled national hit piece by AP before last November’s election. 

We responded by stating, “All the evidence indicates the Associated Press is knowingly spreading false information about Issue 1 while having the nerve to accuse us of spreading misinformation.”

We then cited that evidence, point by point, with links to sources confirming the facts.

We never heard back from AP.

Unfortunately, the far-left spin from the formerly reputable news agency is not the exception – it has become the rule. 

The AP story blaming conservatives for the Harvard president’s own misdeeds is just the latest example. That story is nothing more than a cover-up for the rampant antisemitism and woke groupthink controlling today’s campuses. Not just at Harvard, but, as we have learned, at  universities right here in Ohio.

Fortunately, the Senate has recognized the problem and passed Senate Bill 83, the Higher Education Enhancement Act, which awaits a vote in the House.

It is gratifying to watch the woke meltdown as their hypocrisy is met with today’s reasoned voices of fed-up ordinary Americans, who are delivering a healthy dose of common sense.

The real headline should’ve been: DEI, The Democrat’s New Weapon Infiltrating your Student’s College Classrooms, Boardrooms and Newsrooms.

Just watch this panel discussion from this fall’s Ohio Public University Trustee Governance Symposium.

Distinguished professors revealed the truth that the DEI political agenda of the left is discriminating against competency and quality in faculty hiring, and that the faculty protected by tenure has shown no shame in pursuing this radical agenda.

Most people who falsify a resume or work product would be fired and then find it hard to land another position, as their record would follow them to their next potential employer. But not at Harvard. No! No! The disgraced President got to keep her $900,000 salary to teach the lie of DEI.

Ask yourself what skin color or sexual preference or pronouns you want your heart surgeon or even financial advisor to have? Did you say results matter more than DEI? Extra credit for being brave enough to say it.

The “Diversity” in DEI is actually an academic weapon – if you don’t conform to DEI you will be labeled a racist. A racist is defined in academia as anyone who dares to disagree with today’s socialist, leftist agenda. DEI really stands for Division, Exclusion and Inequality. The very things Dr. Martin Luther King fought against.  

Up is really down, boys are girls, girls are boys, and science is what the left says it is. That is why it is imperative to protect true intellectual diversity in higher education.

The media will continue to wallow in its cognitive dissonance and to pursue its mission to embolden the left to vilify those who achieve through commitment, study, and hard work. That is why newspapers can’t give away subscriptions, because of headlines disconnected from reality like the one from the Associated Press.

John Fortney is Director of Communications for the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus