NBC News is remaining silent following revelations that network host Mehdi Hasan previously plagiarized another outlet’s published works early in his career.
On Tuesday, investigative reporter Lee Fang published a Substack report revealing how early in his career, Hasan appears to have “pass[ed] off others’ reporting as his own, sometimes without any citation at all.” In the report, Fang specifically highlights how the text of a 2000 Independent article authored by Hasan — in which he defended spanking children — is nearly identical to that of an article published by U.S. News and World Report two years prior.
In his Independent column, Hasan wrote, “Anti-smacking crusaders have consistently relied upon inconclusive studies to make sweeping over-generalisations about the dangers of smacking.” Meanwhile, the U.S. News and World Report article reads, “Antispanking crusaders relied on inconclusive studies to make sweeping overgeneralizations about spanking’s dangers.”
It isn’t just the beginning of the U.S. News article that Hasan seemingly plagiarized, however. As noted by Fang, Hasan “goes on to copy every single line from the U.S. News and World Report article, save for occasionally swapping out or adding a few words in each sentence.”
Hasan’s 2000 Independent article:
In 1998, even the American Academy of Pediatrics toned down its blanket injunction against smacking, though it still takes a dim view of the practice. In fact, an AAP conference on corporal punishment in 1996 concluded that, in certain circumstances, smacking, or “spanking”, may be an effective backup to other forms of discipline. “There’s
