The Lesson of Claudine Gay’s Career Collapse

After Claudine Gay’s disastrous congressional testimony a few weeks ago in which the (now former) president of Harvard University downplayed antisemitism on her campus, she offered an apology.

“I am sorry,” Gay told the Harvard campus newspaper. “Words matter.”

They certainly do. Especially when those words are stolen from other authors.

Gay’s resignation on Tuesday brought with it all the expected takes from the media: Bad-faith conservatives were “pouncing,” attacking Gay was racist (as if all black academics are serial plagiarists), Gay was guilty only of a few missing citations,...