Writers Stephanie Saul, Vimal Patel and Dylan Freedman wrote the Times article “Conservative Activist Seizes on Passages From Harris Book,” published the same day as Rufo’s piece. They chose to suggest Rufo is racist, while brushing past the clear evidence of plagiarism.

“The passages called into question by Mr. Rufo on his Substack platform involve about 500 words in the approximately 65,000-word, 200-page book,” the article begins. “Jonathan Bailey, a plagiarism consultant in New Orleans and the publisher of Plagiarism Today, said on Monday that his initial reaction to Mr. Rufo’s claims was that the errors were not serious, given the size of the document.”

According to the Times, the longer the piece of writing, the less serious the plagiarism. PhD students, you’re in luck — Cockburn finally understands why dissertations are so long.