The news director of Mic, Jared Keller, has been accused of plagiarizing stories from a number of sources over the past few months, according to an article on Gawker today. The story lists 20 instances of Keller using passages verbatim or slightly re-written from AP, Reuters, The Atlantic, and other sources.
We emailed Keller about the accusations. He responded but declined to comment.
The most serious accusations of plagiarism, of which there are three mentioned, involve Keller using paragraphs from other outlets wholesale, with no attribution. In other instances, Gawker claims the source was cited generally, but that specific passages from other sites aren't in quotes.
According to his LinkedIn, Keller joined Mic.com as news director in May of 2014. Prior to that, he worked at Al Jazeera America, Bloomberg, and The Atlantic. Mic (once PolicyMic) is a popular news and culture site aimed at millennials. It was started in 2011 and experienced fast success, boasting a monthly audience of over 10 million readers.
UPDATE: On Thursday, Capital reported that Jared Keller had left Mic involuntarily. In other media news, Rocco Castoro, who'd been Editor-in-Chief of Vice Magazine announced his departure.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT