Boston Globe Takes Credit for Breitbart Scoop

Today the Boston Globe has a front-page, below-the-fold story titled “Filings raise more questions on Warren’s ethnic claims.”It’sa well-written take on documents and information first brought tolight here at Breitbart News two weeks ago. Unfortunately, it’spresented as a scoop with no link or reference to the fact that theinformation has appeared previously in another publication. 

Indeed,today’s Globe story, authored by Mary Carmichael (pictured above), explicitly claims this is a brand new scoop: “The documents suggest for the first time that either Warren or a Harvardadministrator classified her repeatedly as Native American in papersprepared for the government.”

As you’ll see, that’s simply nottrue. The key information in the Globe story was reported first by Breitbart News.The easiest way to see this would be to read the twostories back to back, but to simplify things I’ll highlight somepassages that are strikingly similar. Here’s the key support the Globeoffersfor its headline, which appears on page three of their story:

In 1999, Harvard started publishingits full affirmative action plan on its website in the belief that itmight be considered a public document.

The report from that yearlists one Native American senior professor at the entire university. Asection devoted specifically to the law school also lists a singleNative American senior professor, presumably the same one. Both entriesspecify that the professor is female.

Two weeks ago I opened my story here at Breitbart News like this:

A newly revealed document taken from a 1999 Affirmative Action PlanBook published by Harvard University indicates that Elizabeth Warrenwas officially listed as a Native American by Harvard Law School. ThoughWarren is not mentioned by name, the report shows just one NativeAmerican member of the law school.

Later in the story I included a link to the same document on theInternet Archive which the Globe linked today. This is the keysimilarity, because without this document, there is no story.

In my report, I made much of the fact that this AffirmativeAction information is self-reported, i.e. that it would likely have comefrom Warrenherself. To prove this point, I quoted at length from an obscure Dept.of Labor FAQ for employers which I found several layers deep on theirwebsite. It readsin part: “If self-identification is not feasible, post-employment records or visual observationmay be used to obtain this information.” Notice the bit which I’veitalicized. In today’s Globe story, Ms. Carmichael apparently quotes the sameobscure Dept. of Labor FAQ without explainingwhere it came from:

The US Department of Labor requires large employers to collectdiversity statistics annually and suggests they be based on employees’classification of themselves. In cases in which employees do notself-identify, federal regulations allow some administrators to makejudgment calls on the correct categories using “employment records or observer identification.”

There’s more. On the last page of today’s Globe story is a mention of a1998 letter which a Harvard spokesmen sent to the New York Times. As ithappens,Breitbart News was the first to reporton that document more than two weeks ago. The same story also connectedHarvard’s concern for its minority hiring record to the protest led byDerrick Bell a few years earlier. This is one of the themes of today’s Globe story as well.

There’s no doubt that the Globe story adds some additional informationon this topic. For instance, the authors directly contact the personresponsible for maintaining Harvard’s diversity statistics during the ’90s. They also publish links to identical documents from the years2000-2004. I had access to all of these at the time I wrote my storybut chose to focus on 1999, as it was the earliest example. However,there’s no doubt that the core of today’s Globe story is thematerial published here at Breitbart two weeks ago.

Even if Ms. Carmichael came to all the above information through her own sources (a generous assumption), the Globe still can not claim, as they do today, “The documents suggest for the first time…”Any Google search of these topics during the last two weeks would haverevealed that Breitbart News had already brought these same key documents to light, making the same exact points on the same exact topic. Frankly, it’s very hard to believe Ms.Carmichael and her editors missed it, but I am contacting the Globe about thisoversight and hope the situation will be resolved soon.