This one’s a tangled web, so follow closely.

Over the past few months, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman publicly pressured his alma mater, Harvard University, to fire president Claudine Gay. Part of his complaint was that Gay had been accused of committing plagiarism during her career. Gay did ultimately step down.

Then late last week, Business Insider published stories that accused Neri Oxman, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, of plagiarism, including lifting from Wikipedia more than a dozen times in her dissertation. One headline read: “Academic celebrity Neri Oxman plagiarized from Wikipedia, scholars, a textbook, and other sources without any attribution.”

So here’s where it gets interesting. Oxman is married to Ackman, who is now furious at Business Insider and accusing it of bad journalism. And Business Insider’s parent company is listening.

In one social media post, Ackman accused the source (or sources) for Business Insider of being from MIT. In another lengthy post on X, Ackman wrote that the editor of the investigative group of Business Insider is “a known anti-Zionist. My wife is Israeli. That might explain why he was willing to lead this attack and others turned down the source when they were looking for a media outlet.”

He also accused Business Insider of breaking a “sacred code” by going after a powerful person’s family member.

The story took another twist Sunday when The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin tweeted a statement from Business Insider’s parent company, the Germany-based Axel Springer, which said it’s looking into the matter — even though nothing in the story appears to be false.

The memo said, in part, “While the facts of the reports have not been disputed, over the past few days questions have been raised about the motivation and the process leading up to the reporting — questions that we take very seriously.”

The statement added, “We are going to take a couple of days to review the processes around these stories to ensure that our standards as well as our journalistic values have been upheld. We will be transparent with our conclusions.”

The Washington Post’s Will Sommer reported Business Insider leaders were “surprised” by the Axel Springer statement.

Sommer wrote, “In a Sunday afternoon email to employees that was reviewed by The Washington Post, Business Insider global editor in chief Nicholas Carlson appeared to push back on the idea that the stories needed a review. Carlson wrote that he would ‘welcome’ the review but argued for the news value of the stories given Oxman’s position as what he called a ‘well-known academic’ and start-up founder.”

Carlson wrote, “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.”

So why would Axel Springer make such a big deal about a story that appears to be factual and involves a newsworthy subject? It could be that Axel Springer is concerned the stories about Oxman may be seen as antisemitic or anti-Zionist.

Sommer notes that Axel Springer “supports Israel openly in a way that would be unusual for a nonpartisan American media firm. Axel Springer employees in Germany — though not at its U.S. properties — must sign a mission statement that affirms Israel’s right to exist, among other issues. In 2021, the Israeli flag flew for a week in front of the company’s offices after (CEO Mathias) Döpfner mandated it as a statement against antisemitism, telling anyone who had a problem with the flag to leave the company.”

Ackman also has complained he and his wife weren’t given enough time by Business Insider to respond to the report, saying they only had 90 minutes.

In the end, Oxman appears to have done the very thing Ackman criticized Gay for, and Oxman does rise to the level of being a public figure whose plagiarism is of interest to readers.

But, Semafor’s Max Tani writes, “the controversy comes at an interesting moment for Business Insider. The company recently added the ‘Business’ back to its name, in a move intended to return the brand to its roots. Top execs at Axel Springer seem to be worried that reports like those on Oxman last week could damage BI’s reputation in the eyes of some potential business readers. The company has taken heat from a number of right-leaning business figures over the past several years, including Ackman, Elon Musk, and David Portnoy, over critical reporting the outlet has done on their personal lives.”

(For the record, Ackman tweeted this week that he is a “centrist.”)

Ultimately, it appears that even if Axel Springer comes back and says it stands behind Business Insider’s reporting, bridges between BI and its parent company will require some serious mending.

CNN’s Sara Sidner reveals cancer diagnosis

CNN’s Sara Sidner, shown here last month at CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

CNN anchor Sara Sidner announced on air Monday that she is being treated for Stage 3 breast cancer. While anchoring “CNN News Central,” Sidner told viewers, “I have never been sick a day in my life. I don’t smoke. I rarely drink. Breast cancer does not run in my family. And yet here I am with stage three breast cancer. It is hard to say out loud.”

Fighting back tears, Sidner went on to say that she is in her second month of chemotherapy and will undergo radiation and a double mastectomy.

Sidner, 51, said, “Stage 3 is not a death sentence anymore for the vast majority of women, but here is the reality that really shocked my system when I started to research more about breast cancer, something I never knew before this diagnosis: If you happen to be a Black woman, you are 41% more likely to die from breast cancer than your white counterparts. Forty-one percent. So to all my sisters, Black and white and brown out there, please for the love of God get your mammogram every single year. Do your self-exams. Try to catch it before I did.”

In an interview with People’s Kyler Alvord, Sidner said that she told no one when she was first diagnosed because she needed time to process the news. After jumping to the worst-case scenario in her head, Sidner told Alvord she then told herself to not give up, saying, “I just made a decision. I’m like, ‘No, you’re going to live and you’re going to stop this and you’re going to do every single thing in your arsenal to survive this. Period.’ And I have been so much happier in my life since. … I mean happier than I was before cancer.”

Even though she said she feels fatigued and is moving a bit slower, Sidner has not missed a day of work.

Sidner said, “I’m living and I’m loving living because I know it can be short. I don’t know how this is going to end … (but) we have the ability to feel joy at any point as long as we’re breathing.”

Doubling down

If you were expecting ESPN’s Pat McAfee to back down from his claims that a senior ESPN executive is trying to sabotage his show, you don’t know McAfee very well. As I wrote Monday, McAfee pointed a finger at Norby Williamson, ESPN’s executive editor and head of event and studio production, for leaking to the media what McAfee claims is false information about viewership numbers, and claimed Williamson was trying to make the show look bad.

McAfee made the comments right after the ESPN portion of his show ended and the rest was carried on ESPN+ and YouTube. On his show Monday, McAfee acted surprised that his comments went viral because they weren’t on the linear ESPN channel.

Not that he regretted it.

McAfee said, “The only thing that I’m super bummed out at all is that a guy that we like a lot … (ESPN president) Burke Magnus, who is currently the new guy in charge at ESPN right below (chairman) Jimmy Pitaro, I guess he was made to look bad because of what I did and how I did it. I would like to let everybody know, we love Burke Magnus. Love Burke Magnus. And also love Jimmy Pitaro. Love (Disney CEO) Bob Iger. But there is quite a transition here between the old and the new.

The comments last week caused quite a stir, even though ESPN officially downplayed it all and said it was an internal matter and that it supported both Williamson and McAfee. But then McAfee doubled down Monday, saying, “A lot of people are saying I’m trying to get fired. No way. There’s certainly people that we do not like, certainly. And they do not like us, that’s how it’s gonna be. And I don’t take back anything that I said about said person, but the overall storyline about us and ESPN I think people need to remember: we’re strong. We’re strong, baby. And we all understand what the future looks like, there’s just some old hags that potentially don’t.”

News leaders predict a bleak 2024

For this item, I turned it over to Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds.

The news industry suffered internationally last year from an abrupt falloff of traffic referrals from Facebook and X. Executives don’t expect improvement in 2024, which leaves them pessimistic about financial prospects and worrying it may not prove a good year for journalism.

These are the headline findings of the latest report from the Reuters Institute at Oxford, “Trends and Predictions,” based on a survey of 314 executives in 56 countries, and released Tuesday. Specifically:

• Almost two-thirds of the leaders (64%) are worried about social media referrals. Chartbeat measures showed Facebook traffic down by 48% and X by 27% in 2023. They plan to adjust strategies to make more use of WhatsApp and Instagram and to rely on their own channels for building audiences.
• Video referrals held up better. YouTube and TikTok will continue to get particular attention. Meta’s decision to open broadcast channels to publishers is another plus. Accordingly, the leaders expect to create a similar number of articles in the coming year but tilt more toward video formats.
• The publishers see benefits from AI, particularly in back-end technology. But 31% saw it as a force in content creation. Only about half (48%) thought there would be substantial financial benefit to publishers from licensing deals with AI platforms. They expect most of those to flow to big publishers.
• Only half of the group said they were confident about “the prospects for journalism in the year ahead.” The U.S. presidential election will be a plus (though polarizing), but cost pressures and declining advertising will pinch news budgets.

Nic Newman, principal author of the report, commented in a press release, “Reaching audiences online is getting tougher. … The big fear is that search traffic may be next, as AI-powered results provide answers directly in the interface, rather than offering so many links to news sites.”

Good numbers, bad show

Jo Koy, arriving at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Sunday night’s telecast of the Golden Globe Awards on CBS averaged 9.4 million viewers, a 50% increase from a year ago and the biggest audience since 2020. But the show and host Jo Koy were generally panned by critics. Variety’s Alison Herman wrote, “It turns out this year’s Globes were still a trainwreck — just not the kind one likes to watch. At just a hair over three hours, the ceremony was efficient on paper, but felt interminable in practice. With forced banter, ill-conceived staging and a woefully unqualified MC, this year’s show was hardly a triumphant return, let alone a showcase for a new and improved Golden Globes.”

Koy’s opening monologue was mostly flat, so much so that he acknowledged it while he was doing it, telling the star-studded audience, “I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up. You’re kidding me, right? Slow down, I wrote some of these — and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”

Koy admitted on Monday’s “GMA 3” on ABC that the night was a mixed bag and he was stung by some of the criticism. He said, “I had fun. You know, it was a moment that I’ll always remember. It’s a tough room. It was a hard job, I’m not going to lie … I’d be lying if (I said) it doesn’t hurt. I hit a moment there where I was like, ‘Ah.’ Hosting is just a tough gig. Yes, I’m a stand-up comic but that hosting position it’s a different style. I kind of went in and did the writer’s thing. We had 10 days to write this monologue. It was a crash course. I feel bad, but I got to still say I loved what I did.”

The one joke that especially landed with a thud was actually not that bad of an observation. He said, “As you know, we came on after a football doubleheader. The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? On the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift, I swear.”

The camera then cut to Swift, who didn’t even crack a smile as she took a sip of champagne — a scene that will surely become a meme.

When asked on Monday if there were any moments he felt bad about, Koy said, “I think it was when the Taylor one was just a little flat. … It was a weird joke, I guess. But it was more on the NFL … I was trying to make fun of the NFL using cutaways and how the Globes didn’t have to do that. So it was more of a jab toward the NFL. But it just didn’t come out that way.”

Speaking of Swift

The New York Times’ opinion section is being questioned over a 5,000-word essay — “Look What We Made Taylor Swift Do” — by opinion editor Anna Marks. The piece speculated on whether Swift, because of various hints in her music and videos and other work, might actually be queer.

Marks wrote in her piece, “In isolation, a single dropped hairpin is perhaps meaningless or accidental, but considered together, they’re the unfurling of a ballerina bun after a long performance. Those dropped hairpins began to appear in Ms. Swift’s artistry long before queer identity was undeniably marketable to mainstream America. They suggest to queer people that she is one of us.”

Marks also wrote, “Whether she is conscious of it or not, Ms. Swift signals to queer people — in the language we use to communicate with one another — that she has some affinity for queer identity. There are some queer people who would say that through this sort of signaling, she has already come out, at least to us. But what about coming out in a language the rest of the public will understand?”

(It’s true that I’ve cherry-picked a few passages, so for fairness, read the essay for yourself.)

Swift is an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, but she has not identified as a member of that community.

A person considered close to Swift’s camp told CNN’s Oliver Darcy, “Because of her massive success, in this moment there is a Taylor-shaped hole in people’s ethics. This article wouldn’t have been allowed to be written about Shawn Mendes or any male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans. There seems to be no boundary some journalists won’t cross when writing about Taylor, regardless of how invasive, untrue, and inappropriate it is — all under the protective veil of an ‘opinion piece.’”

Many were surprised that The New York Times would write such a piece, and even Marks seemed to realize the pushback she might get. She wrote in the essay, “I know that discussing the potential of a star’s queerness before a formal declaration of identity feels, to some, too salacious and gossip-fueled to be worthy of discussion.”

Marks later added, “I share many of these reservations. But the stories that dominate our collective imagination shape what our culture permits artists and their audiences to say and be. Every time an artist signals queerness and that transmission falls on deaf ears, that signal dies. Recognizing the possibility of queerness — while being conscious of the difference between possibility and certainty — keeps that signal alive.”

Media tidbits

• The Daily Beast’s Confider media newsletter reported former CNN anchor Don Lemon is in talks with X about hosting a program on the site formerly known as Twitter. Interestingly, the other former cable news anchor who has a show on X is Tucker Carlson, who was fired from Fox News the same day (April 24, 2023) Lemon was ousted from CNN. Confider wrote, “No word yet on whether Lemon’s X show would be an interview-based program like Carlson’s but if it is, we hope he can give the former Fox star a run for his money with the quality of his bookings. Carlson’s sitdowns for Tucker on X have thus far included the likes of Ice Cube, Kid Rock, conspiracy loon Alex Jones, alleged rapist and sex trafficker Andrew Tate, and our personal favorite, Larry Sinclair, a convicted con man wielding discredited claims of crack-fueled sexual liaisons with Barack Obama. A real murderers’ row of mensches.”
• Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft was interviewed on CNN on Monday and it did not go well. Kudos to CNN’s Boris Sanchez for strong pushbacks.
• Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds with “From the inside, a nonprofit news leader says the sector is several years away from its potential.”
• CNN veteran journalist Kyung Lah has been named senior investigative correspondent at the network. Lah has covered a variety of topics for CNN, including presidential campaigns, the war in Ukraine and COVID-19, in addition to previously being CNN’s Tokyo correspondent.
• The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch with “Sports media predictions for 2024: Tom Brady debuts for Fox, Olympics rebound.”
• And here are John Ourand’s sports media predictions for 2024. Ourand wrote this for Sports Business Journal, but he is soon off to work for Puck.

Hot type

• ProPublica’s Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi with “Staff Warned About the Lack of Psychiatric Care at a VA Clinic. They Couldn’t Prevent Tragedy.”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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