Media rush to defend ex-Harvard President Claudine Gay, downplay plagiarism and blame 'racist' conservatives

Prominent members of the media rushed to the defense of embattled now-former Harvard President Claudine Gay on Tuesday after she resigned amid widespread antisemitism on campus and mounting plagiarism allegations against her. 

Reporters and pundits have either blamed race or taken the "conservatives-pounce" approach to her resignation. 

The Associated Press published a headline, "Harvard president’s resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism," that put a spotlight on who found the alleged cardinal sin in academia instead of the act itself. 

"The downfall of Harvard’s president has elevated the threat of unearthing plagiarism, a cardinal sin in academia, as a possible new weapon in conservative attacks on higher education," AP reporters wrote. 

HARVARD PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY RESIGNS AMID ANTISEMITISM, PLAGIARISM CONTROVERSIES

The AP went on to report that "plagiarism allegations came not from her academic peers but her political foes, led by conservatives who sought to oust Gay" and those detractors charged that Gay "got the top job in large part because she is a Black woman."

An Associated Press spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the piece was not up to standards and is in the process of being updated. It has since changed its headline to "Plagiarism charges downed Harvard’s president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage."

CNN reporter Matt Egan went viral as news of Gay’s resignation broke when he appeared to downplay the dozens of plagiarism allegations against her. 

"We should note that Claudine Gay has not been accused of stealing anyone's ideas in any of her writings. She has been accused of, sort of, more like copying other people’s writings without attribution. So, it's been more sloppy attribution than stealing anyone's ideas," Egan told CNN viewers.

New York Times Magazine reporter and "1619 Project" founder Nikole Hannah-Jones called Gay’s resignation a "glimpse into the future to come."

"Academic freedom is under attack. Racial justice programs are under attack. Black women will be made to pay. Our so-called allies too often lack any real courage," Hannah-Jones wrote. 

The New York Times’ Mara Gay declared, "The thing that really disturbs me is the unrelenting campaign from the right, and from some conservative activists, to slander, discredit… to essentially unseat Gay," during an appearance on MSNBC. 

"This is really an attack on academic freedom, it’s an attack on people who are pluralists and believe that you should bring people from all over the world together of diverse backgrounds," Gay continued. This is an attack on diversity. This is an attack on multiculturalism… I don’t have to say that they’re racist, because you can hear and see the racism in the attacks."

The New York Times was also called out by New York Post reporter Jon Levine for referring to the ex-Harvard president famously refusing to say calling for the genocide of Jewish people violated the school's code of conduct as a "prosecutorial trap." 

Politico published a piece, "Harvard governing board, activists say former president was a victim of racism," focusing on civil rights activists who defended Gay through thick and thin. 

"Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, who supports Gay, said her resignation is ‘an assault on the health, strength and future of diversity, equity and inclusion,’" Politico pointed out. 

Sharpton is also an MSNBC host. 

EMBATTLED HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY HIT WITH MORE PLAGIARISM CHARGES

A separate Politico piece headlined, "How the Right Toppled Harvard’s President," seemed to scold the Washington Free Beacon, the Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo and journalist Christopher Brunet for daring to uncover the alleged plagiarism.

MSNBC pundit Mehdi Hasan, who recently had his show canceled but remains at the network as an analyst, spent much of the day panning Gay’s critics on social media. 

New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait penned a piece, "Claudine Gay Had to Resign, But She Was Right About the Big Things," which also called the infamous hearing to investigate antisemitism on college campuses a "trap" while downplaying plagiarism and attacking her accusers.

"Right-wing activist Christopher Rufo and conservative journalist Aaron Sibarium discovered evidence that papers by Gay had violated academic rules of attribution on multiple occasions. Plagiarism is the shorthand for this offense; it is a term that describes a wide array of errors and crimes of vastly different scales. The word generally conjures the notion of intellectual theft — one person makes an original discovery, and another steals it and passes off the work as their own. Gay’s offenses were more minor. She sloppily failed to employ correct citations and quotes for her citations. Those errors were not necessary for her advancement. She could have fixed them easily," Chait wrote. 

HARVARD STUDENT PANS UNIVERSITY'S EFFORT TO CLEAN UP STANCE ON JEWISH GENOCIDE: ‘HAD A CHANCE UNDER OATH'

Media members have been defending Gay and downplaying plagiarism for weeks, and NBC News reporter Ben Collins even mocked coverage of the scandal.

"Please newspapers, I must know more about internal politicking at Harvard University. Put more reporters on it. My need to know who is internally popular at the executive level of one college is insatiable. It is the most important thing in the world," Collins snarked last month. 

Author Keith Boykin posted, "If we’re going to start scrutinizing every detail of college presidents’ past writings for technical attribution issues, then let’s do it. Let’s go look at everyone’s past writings, not just Claudine Gay at Harvard. Let’s put them all under a microscope and see how they hold up."

Fox News' David Rutz and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.