Business Insider EIC Carlson stands by Oxman stories

Business Insider global editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson sent out the following to the staff on Sunday:

Team,

We published two stories about Neri Oxman this week. She is a well-known academic who know runs a startup. Those stories uncovered plagiarism in her academic papers. The first story revealed plagiarism similar to the kind found in Claudine Gay’s work. The revelations in the second story were more serious: specifically that Oxman lifted passages without citation from Wikipedia, a textbook, and other academic writing.

The facts of the stories have not been disputed by Oxman or her husband Bill Ackman.

Ackman and others have raised concerns about our reporting process, as well as the motivation for publishing the stories.

As Global Editor-in-Chief it is my responsibility to publish fair, independent, and newsworthy journalism. I made the call to publish both these stories. I stand by our story and the work that went into it. I know that our process was sound. I know our newsroom’s motivations are truth and accountability.

Our colleagues at Axel Springer have asked that we look at our process leading up to publishing the story, to make sure it meets out standards.

I stand proudly by our newsroom and therefore welcome any sort of review of our work as I am confident it will put my colleagues, our readers, and other stakeholders at ease.

Nicholas Carlson

Global Editor-in-Chief