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Time of India
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
After 'Signalgate', now this: Pete Hegseth accused of plagiarism by Princeton student newspaper
Pete Hegseth Accused of Plagiarism in Princeton Thesis, Student Newspaper Reports- Former Princeton student and current Fox News host Pete Hegseth is facing plagiarism accusations tied to his 2003 senior thesis, according to a detailed report by The Daily Princetonian , the university's student-run newspaper. The publication claims that Hegseth, who is also a former Army officer and a prominent conservative media figure, may have copied parts of his undergraduate thesis without proper credit. #Operation Sindoor The damage done at Pak bases as India strikes to avenge Pahalgam Why Pakistan pleaded to end hostilities Kashmir's Pahalgam sparks Karachi's nightmare The newspaper's investigation centers around Hegseth's 2003 senior thesis, titled 'Modern Presidential Rhetoric and the Cold War Context.' It was flagged for containing eight instances of possible plagiarism, based on analysis by three separate plagiarism experts and multiple plagiarism detection tools. How serious are the plagiarism claims against Pete Hegseth? According to The Daily Princetonian , the newspaper reviewed Hegseth's thesis using several plagiarism-checking programs. Out of 12 flagged passages, eight were deemed 'serious' by the experts, citing 'uncredited material, sham paraphrasing, and verbatim copying.' Four other passages were not considered severe individually but suggested a pattern of repeated copying. One of the clearest examples pointed out by the paper involved a paragraph that closely mirrors a 2001 Washington Post article about President George W. Bush's response on 9/11. Hegseth wrote in his thesis: What do plagiarism experts say about the Princeton thesis? The review included insights from three plagiarism analysts: Live Events James M. Lang, a well-known author of Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty , called it a 'borderline case.' He told the Princetonian that some examples were minor, while others raised more concern. Lang added, 'There's no silver bullet here; there's no smoking gun in terms of a deep example of plagiarism.' Lang highlighted a section similar to a book on President John F. Kennedy as an 'egregious' example. On the other hand, Jonathan Bailey, who runs the website Plagiarism Today , argued that some flagged cases didn't meet the threshold of serious academic misconduct. Bailey said: 'Even the ones that were more direct still typically only involve a sentence or two at a time.' Despite differing views, all three experts agreed that the thesis did not consistently follow academic citation rules and did violate Princeton's standards in several places. What was Pete Hegseth's thesis about and why does it matter now? Hegseth's thesis, written in 2003, was titled 'Modern Presidential Rhetoric and the Cold War Context.' It examined how U.S. presidents' public speeches evolved from the mid-20th century through the early 2000s, especially in response to global threats. The work was submitted as part of his graduation requirement — a senior thesis being mandatory for nearly all Princeton students. The issue is important not only because Hegseth is a high-profile media figure, but also because academic integrity is central to institutions like Princeton. The university has not yet made a public comment on the case. Does this accusation affect Pete Hegseth's public image? Pete Hegseth, a frequent Fox News contributor and former U.S. Army National Guard officer, has built his career around patriotic themes and conservative commentary. He's also been reportedly floated for senior roles in a future Republican administration, including a possible post as Defense Secretary. While the plagiarism claims relate to a paper written over 20 years ago, they could raise questions about Hegseth's credibility in academic and political circles. That said, there's no word yet from Hegseth or his representatives on the allegations. What does this mean for academic standards and plagiarism rules? This story opens up a larger conversation about how universities — especially Ivy League schools like Princeton — enforce academic standards. It also reflects the long-term impact of academic dishonesty, even years after a student graduates. According to The Daily Princetonian , experts said that while not all of the copied material would justify disciplinary action today, the number of instances forms a pattern. One expert mentioned the content "fit a broader pattern of some form of plagiarism.' On the Pete Hegseth plagiarism controversy The Pete Hegseth plagiarism allegations come at a time when accountability in both academia and media is under the spotlight. With eight questionable passages flagged and Princeton's academic code being referenced, the situation invites deeper scrutiny — not just of Hegseth's past work, but of how we evaluate academic honesty over time. As of now, Princeton University has not issued any official response, and Hegseth has remained silent on the matter. But the claims published by his alma mater's own newspaper are likely to keep the spotlight on his early academic record. FAQs: Q1: What is the Pete Hegseth Princeton plagiarism controversy? Pete Hegseth is accused of copying parts of his 2003 Princeton thesis without credit. Q2: How many plagiarism cases were found in Pete Hegseth's thesis? Experts flagged 8 serious cases of plagiarism in Hegseth's thesis. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
Economic Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Economic Times
Pete Hegseth lands in another controversy: US Defense Secretary under scrutiny again after Signal Gate scandal
Pete Hegseth accused of plagiarism Live Events Pentagon responds (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has landed in yet another controversy. After Signal Gate scandal and row over his wife attending high-level sensitive military meetings, Hegseth has been accused of plagiarism by the student paper at Princeton University — his alma mater, according to The Daily Princetonian has alleged that Pete Hegseth's 2003 senior thesis contains eight instances of "uncredited material, sham paraphrasing, and verbatim copying."Hegseth's thesis titled "Modern Presidential Rhetoric and the Cold War Context," was reviewed by three plagiarism experts. They were not made aware of the identity of the author before assessing the one example, Hegseth wrote about President George W. Bush's reaction to being told of the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11.'After Card's whisper, Bush looked distracted and somber but continued to listen to the second-graders, joking that they 'read like sixth-graders,'' wrote the now defense article in The Washington published in 2001 shortly after the attacks, reads: 'After Card's whisper, Bush looked distracted and somber but continued to listen to the second-graders read and soon was smiling again. He joked that they read so well, they must be sixth-graders.' The Post article is not cited in Hegseth's detection models identified 12 passages in the thesis, of which experts consulted by the newspaper deemed only eight to be notably significant. The remaining four, while not individually alarming, were considered to contribute to 'a broader pattern of some form of plagiarism.'Although all three experts agreed that the passages breached Princeton's academic integrity rules, they differed in their assessments of the severity—some viewed the violations as serious, while others considered them too minor to warrant major M. Lang, author of Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty, characterised the case as "borderline," stating to the Princetonian, "There's no silver bullet here; there's no smoking gun in terms of a deep example of plagiarism."Instead, he noted that the situation presented more "gray than black and white," circumstances, with roughly half of the plagiarism examples being severe and the other half being relatively example where experts diverge is a passage written by the defense secretary regarding former President John F. Kennedy's Berlin Wall speech."The Berlin Wall speech represents a rare occurrence in presidential rhetoric; caught up in the emotion of the moment, Kennedy, who had just given a speech about the need for peace, got carried away and just ad-libbed the opposite, saying there was no way to work with the Communists," Hegseth passage closely mirrors one found in Richard Reeves' book President Kennedy: Profile of Power, which states: 'In his enthusiasm, Kennedy, who had just given a peace speech and was trying to work out a test ban treaty with the Soviets, had gotten carried away and just ad-libbed the opposite, saying there was no way to work with Communists.'Although Reeves is cited in Hegseth's paper—even in reference to that specific sentence—quotation marks are not used. While Lang views the issue as serious, Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today told The Princetonian that the infraction wasn't particularly severe.'Even the ones that were more direct still typically only involve a sentence or two at a time,' Bailey explained. Guy Curtis, an academic integrity researcher at the University of Western Australia, noted that the thesis did violate university rules regarding unattributed copying.'Once you get 10 to 15 words in a row by 'accident' that match something else — it's probably not accidental,' Curtis there are no formal regulations governing plagiarism discovered after graduation. Bailey suggested these instances likely stemmed from negligence rather than intent. 'This doesn't fit the pattern of someone who deliberately, maliciously tried to plagiarize their way through,' he said. 'It seems more like a case of poor writing practices and weak methodology.'After The Daily Princetonian published its piece, Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell released a statement to showing his support for Hegseth."Secretary Hegseth has written five books. He's written hundreds of papers and op-eds. During the confirmation process, every word was reviewed by top left-wing law firms working in conjunction with every media outlet in the country," Parnell has recently faced scrutiny over two Signal group chat incidents and significant Pentagon departures. The first involved a chat established by national security adviser Mike Waltz where Hegseth shared Houthi attack plans. The second chat, involving his family members and lawyer, discussed similar matters, though Hegseth maintained it was "informal" and "unclassified.""They found no plagiarism because there was no plagiarism. This is a fake story designed to distract from the DoD's historic accomplishments under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth's leadership."
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pete Hegseth accused of plagiarism by Princeton student newspaper
Pete Hegseth, the frequently embattled Trump administration defense secretary, has now been accused of plagiarism by the student newspaper of his alma mater, Princeton University. A report by The Daily Princetonian alleges that his senior thesis, submitted by Hegseth in 2003, contains eight instances of 'uncredited material, sham paraphrasing, and verbatim copying.' The outlet had the thesis, 'Modern Presidential Rhetoric and the Cold War Context,' reviewed by three plagiarism experts. They were not made aware of the identity of the author before assessing the work. In one example, Hegseth wrote about President George W. Bush's reaction to being told of the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York on 9/11. 'After Card's whisper, Bush looked distracted and somber but continued to listen to the second-graders, joking that they 'read like sixth-graders,'' wrote the now defense secretary. An article in The Washington Post, published in 2001 shortly after the attacks, reads: 'After Card's whisper, Bush looked distracted and somber but continued to listen to the second-graders read and soon was smiling again. He joked that they read so well, they must be sixth-graders.' The Post article is not cited in Hegseth's paper. Plagiarism detection models flagged 12 passages in the thesis, and the experts consulted by the newspaper found only eight of those were significant, with the remaining four being not significant enough to be concerning alone but 'fit a broader pattern of some form of plagiarism.' While the three experts all said that the passages violated Princeton's academic honesty regulations, they had differing opinions on whether the instances were serious or too minor to matter. James M. Lang, author of Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty, called the case 'borderline.' He told the Princetonian: 'There's no silver bullet here; there's no smoking gun in terms of a deep example of plagiarism,' and said there was more 'gray than black and white,' with roughly half of the examples constituting serious plagiarism and the other half only being minor. In one example where the experts differ, Hegseth wrote: 'The Berlin Wall speech represents a rare occurrence in presidential rhetoric; caught up in the emotion of the moment, Kennedy, who had just given a speech about the need for peace, got carried away and just ad-libbed the opposite, saying there was no way to work with the Communists.' The passage is similar to one from President Kennedy: Profile of Power by Richard Reeves: 'In his enthusiasm, Kennedy, who had just given a peace speech and was trying to work out a test ban treaty with the Soviets, had gotten carried away and just ad-libbed the opposite, saying there was no way to work with Communists.' Reeves is cited in the paper, even for that sentence, but there are no quotation marks. While Lang sees that incident as serious, Jonathan Bailey, who runs the website Plagiarism Today, didn't see that or any of the other seven as egregious. 'Even the ones that were more direct still typically only involve a sentence or two at a time,' Bailey told the Princetonian. The third expert consulted, Guy Curtis, a researcher at the University of Western Australia who studies academic integrity, said that the thesis violated rules as set out by the university regarding unattributed copying. 'Once you get 10 to 15 words in a row by 'accident' that happen to correspond with something else — it's probably not accidental,' Curtis said. There are no set rules at Princeton for addressing such issues after graduation, and they could be explained by sloppiness or oversight. Bailey told the paper: 'This doesn't fit the pattern of someone who went into this deliberately, maliciously trying to plagiarize their way to finishing it. This seems like it was just poor writing techniques and poor methodology.' The senior thesis is a graduation requirement for all undergraduate students. Hegseth graduated in 2003. Following the publication of the The Daily Princetonian's article, Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell provided a statement to Konstantin Toropin, a reporter for 'Secretary Hegseth has written five books. He's written hundreds of papers and op-eds. During the confirmation process, every word was reviewed by top left-wing law firms working in conjunction with every media outlet in the country. They found no plagiarism because there was no plagiarism,' he said. 'This is a fake story designed to distract from the DoD's historic accomplishments under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth's leadership.' The defense secretary had a difficult confirmation process on Capitol Hill and has since been plagued by scandals relating to his sharing of sensitive military operational information in Signal group chats.
