On the April 5 NBC Today, correspondent Kristen Welker repeated last-minute accusations that Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch had plagiarized – but it wasn’t until after she had gone onto other topics and was wrapping up her report that she mentioned that the person he was accused of plagiarizing had already debunked those claims.
Neither CBS This Morning, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN’s New Day, nor even sister network MSNBC’s Morning Joe thought these accusations were worth mentioning.
“With health care still up in the air,” Welker reported, “Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch is one step closer to confirmation, after debate ended late Tuesday. But overnight, Politico reporting he plagiarized several authors in his book and an academic article.
“In a statement, a White House spokesman called the allegations in part a ‘last-second smear of Judge Gorsuch to justify the unprecedented filibuster.’ A showdown set for Thursday, with Republicans in the majority poised to use the nuclear option, if needed, to approve Gorsuch.”
After throwing out these serious charges, Welker changed topics, shifting to recapping a CBS This Morning interview where Gayle King demanded Ivanka Trump push her father further to the left.
Only, after that, did Welker turn back to Gorsuch, with an inconvenient fact that flipped her earlier reporting on its head: “As for Judge Gorsuch, the author of the Law Review article Gorsuch is accused of plagiarizing also knocking down the allegations, writing ‘I have reviewed both passages, and do not see an issue here.’ And the White House calling the allegations ‘cherry picked.’ The final vote on Gorsuch is expected Friday. Matt and Savannah?”
