MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan accused of plagiarizing pro-child-spanking column
MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan was accused Tuesday of plagiarizing a column he wrote in favor of child-spanking more than two decades ago.
Hasan seemed to have copied full paragraphs from a US News and World Report, tweaking only a few words, into the 2000 Independent editorial he wrote titled “No Harm in Smacking,” independent journalist Lee Fang reported.
The original article “When to Spank” was published two years before Hasan’s piece and was written by Lynn Rosellini and Anna Mulrine. Several lines and paragraphs Hasan reportedly authored were taken nearly verbatim from the article, according to Fang.
The investigative reporter, who has gotten into Twitter spats with Hasan before, accused the cable anchor of “stealing” from other journalist’s work.
Hasan never attributed any of the words or reporting to the US News and World Report, Fang said.
Instead he reportedly lifted full paragraphs which he tweaked only to update the tense two years later.
Some sentences were exact replicas word-for-word. For example, this sentence appears exactly the same in both articles: “In fact, the reverse may be true: A few studies suggest that when used appropriately, spanking makes small children less likely to fight with others and more likely to obey their parents.”
Fang said Hasan’s alleged plagiarism was “a clear violation of the simple ethics code outlined by the Society for Professional Journalists.”
Fang said he began investigating the anchor’s early career following their Twitter beef when readers encouraged him to look into Hasan’s background.
Hasan has not publicly addressed the plagiarism accusations.
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