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Daily Beast Editor Accuses NYDN‘s Shaun King of Plagiarizing Their Exclusive

by | 3:23 pm, April 19th, 2016

Shaun KingOnly hours after The Daily Beast ran an exclusive story on a black veteran who was taunted by police as he lay dying on the floor of his jail cell, New York Daily News columnist Shaun King wrote an op-ed on the exact same topic that appears to borrow heavily from the Daily Beast piece.

Daily Beast editors began calling on King on his copycat version of their story almost immediately after it was published.

But King’s copy goes far worse than just a lack of attribution; here’s Daily Beast reporter Kate Briquelet‘s version:

When Williams arrived to the county jail’s booking area in the early morning of Oct. 22, Owasso officer Jack Wells slammed him to the floor while trying to handcuff him, according to the cop’s own interview with OSBI. Officer Wells told OSBI he “landed on top of Elliott’s shoulder and head,” but that the prisoner “appeared to be fine with no injuries.”

Still, the Tulsa sheriff office’s appeared to disagree. In an internal report, the sheriff’s department says Williams struggled after the fall, and that his condition was captured on booking cameras. “At this time it is obvious that Williams is having a difficult time standing,” the document stated.

And here’s King:

When Williams arrived to the county jail’s booking area in the early morning of Oct. 22, Owasso officer Jack Wells slammed him to the floor while trying to handcuff him, according to the cop’s own interview with OSBI. Officer Wells told OSBI he “landed on top of Williams’ shoulder and head,” but that the prisoner “appeared to be fine with no injuries.”

Still, the Tulsa sheriff office’s appeared to disagree. In an internal report, the sheriff’s department says Williams struggled after the fall, and that his condition was captured on booking cameras. “At this time it is obvious that Williams is having a difficult time standing,” the document stated.

If those excerpts look identical, it’s because they are identical.

Daily Beast senior editor Justin Miller is pulling no punches, straightforwardly accusing King of plagiarism on Twitter.

King responded to the allegation with a, uh, unique defense, saying that he was just “quoting” the piece. (Again, to reiterate, King did not link to the Daily Beast piece or put Briquilet’s words in quotation marks.)

An editor’s note was added to the piece after Miller’s criticism went viral. “An editing error mistakenly removed attribution to a story originally published by The Daily Beast,” the note reads. “The mistake has been corrected. The News regrets the error.”

UPDATE –– 4:19 pm EST: King continued to give his account of what happened on Twitter, even invoking Clinton ties to the publication:

[Image via screengrab]
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