A reporter from the Daily Caller recently tried to dig up a New Yorker plagiarism scandal, reports The New York Post.
The reporter, Jonathan Strong, was reportedly trying to prove New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer had lifted the content of her profile of Koch Industries, the $100 billion company that funds conservative think tanks and Tea Party candidates, from other news sources. The Daily Caller is a right-wing news site founded by Tucker Carlson and former Cheney aide Neil Patel.
Unsurprisingly, the writers whose content was allegedly lifted stood by the investigative reporter working for a venerable institution, and not the guy from that blog that sells thongs.
Keith Kelly points out that Carlson had motive to wreck Mayer’s credibility on the Koch brothers:
Carlson is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, which has strong ties to the Koch brothers although a spokeswoman insisted those ties have diminished lately and that co-founder Charles Koch, who pumped tens of millions into the group over the years, had cut back in 2009 and withdrew funding entirely in 2010. David Koch remains on its board.
Carlson added that Strong had dropped the story.
@kstoeffel :: kstoeffel@observer.com