Feminism reporter resigns after being accused of plagiarizing conservative Weekly Standard

Daily Beast reporter Lizzie Crocker stepped down over the weekend. (LinkedIn)

Daily Beast reporter Lizzie Crocker stepped down over the weekend after it emerged that her latest story included long sections of text pulled straight from a different story from the Weekly Standard.

The Daily Beast story, headlined “How Katie Roiphe Became Feminism’s Nemesis-In-Chief,” borrowed entire paragraphs from the Weekly Standard article headlined “Katie Roiphe, Moira Donegan, and What We Can Learn From Twitter Mob Mentality.”

New York Times Magazine contributing writer Thomas Chatterton Williams pointed out the similarities in a series of tweets on Saturday. Williams explained his theory, that Crocker felt it was acceptable to copy from Weekly Standard because “she could safely assume few readers look across ideological lines” and the liberal Daily Beast and conservative Weekly Standard don’t have the same audience.

“All stay hunkered down, but the irony is that the same exact piece can work in either venue,” Williams wrote.

As Williams pointed out, entire paragraphs essentially were copied and pasted. Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief John Avlon told TheWrap that “plagiarism is unacceptable” and the liberal website accepted Crocker’s resignation.

“Though this was a difficult decision, we take plagiarism seriously, and will not allow the hard-earned trust we’ve built with our millions of loyal readers to be compromised,” Avlon told TheWrap. “When we became aware of this incident on Saturday, we took swift and decisive action to verify the extent of the plagiarism, and deleted the article with an editors’ note.”

The headline to the story remains on Crocker’s Daily Beast archive page, but the text has been replaced with an editor’s note: “The story published about author Katie Roiphe violated The Daily Beast’s Code of Ethics and Standards and has been removed.”

Avlon also told TheWrap that a larger investigation into Crocker’s work “revealed no other incidents of plagiarism” but added, “One incident is enough.”

Crocker’s recent stories included a letter to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, a piece declaring that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s wife Louise Linton wants to be hated and an article headlined, “What Happens When You Like, or Even Love, a Sexual Harasser?”

Crocker often wrote about feminism, sexual harassment and a variety of other topics seemingly targeting younger female readers. She joined the Daily Beast in 2011 as an editorial assistant and graduated from the affluent Trinity College in 2009, according to her LinkedIn page.

Crocker did not respond to a request for comment.