Ashley Hinson’s campaign is having a terrible week, and it’s only Tuesday. Yesterday morning, the Cedar Rapids Gazette released a blistering fact-check, debunking her baseless attacks against Representative Abby Finkenauer’s plan to invest in Iowa’s aging infrastructure. The Gazette gave Hinson “an F” for falsely claiming that Finkenauer supported the Green New Deal, taking away one of Hinson’s favorite talking points.
Then, barely a few hours later, the New York Times reported that Hinson – a former television reporter – had been plagiarizing her campaign materials. According to the Times, Hinson lifted “verbatim sentences in her campaign website and published op-eds more than a dozen times since her campaign began last year.” The revelation is a serious blow to Hinson’s campaign, which is largely based on her profile as a former journalist.
With her talking points debunked and professional integrity called into question, Hinson is left to tout her record of cutting unemployment benefits for folks who lost their jobs through no fault of their own and letting nursing homes off the hook should their negligence get seniors sick with COVID-19.
Here’s a look at what they’re saying about Hinson’s no good, very bad week (so far):
When Ashley Hinson introduced President Trump during a 2017 rally, she said “I’m what you would call a recovering journalist.” Her recovery apparently did not include maintaining basic standards of offering credit when lifting passages of text from another source, including The New York Times.
Ms. Hinson, a Republican Iowa state representative who is running against Representative Abby Finkenauer in what figures to be one of the nation’s most competitive House districts, has lifted verbatim sentences in her campaign website and published op-eds more than a dozen times since her campaign began last year.
Last Wednesday Ms. Hinson published on her campaign website an essay titled “Creating America’s new normal: China must be held accountable.” The 642-word piece included 91 words, across three separate passages, that were identical to a March 11 New York Times story by Ana Swanson about the Trump administration’s efforts to encourage pharmaceutical companies to manufacture more of their products in the United States.
…Ms. Hinson’s website also borrowed exact passages from the Des Moines Register and from The Hill, an outlet that covers Washington; in op-eds she has taken phrases from CNBC, and her platform on veterans issues uses near-identical language to Ms. Finkenauer, her Democratic opponent, among other instances.
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Cedar Rapids Gazette: Fact Checker: Hinson’s Green New Deal tweet speaks to base, not facts
Republican state Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running this fall for Iowa’s 1st Congressional District against Democratic incumbent Abby Finkenauer, had this to tweet June 23:
“@Abby4Iowa wants Iowans to front a $123 billion bill to pay for the Green New Deal. Does she know that the Green New Deal puts farmers OUT of business?”
…Claim 1: Finkenauer “wants Iowans to front a $123 billion bill to pay for the Green New Deal.”
…Conclusion: We give this claim an F for conflating the INVEST in America Act and the Green New Deal. It’s also misleading to indicate Iowans specifically would be required to pay $123 billion.
Claim 2: “Does she (Finkenauer) know that the Green New Deal puts farmers OUT of business?”
…Conclusion: We give Hinson a D for this claim. While a move to zero emission vehicles could, in the long run, be bad for ethanol, there isn’t evidence it would put farmers “out of business.”
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Cedar Rapids Gazette: Ashley Hinson cites staff after New York Times uncovers plagiarism
Ashley Hinson, the Republican candidate in Eastern Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, lifted passages of text for her campaign website from other sources, including the New York Times, the Times reported Monday.
Hinson “lifted verbatim sentences on her campaign website and in published op-eds more than a dozen times since her campaign began last year,” the Times reported.
One example was an essay titled “Creating America’s new normal: China must be held accountable,” which contained three passages identical to a March 11 New York Times story, the Times reported.
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Telegraph Herald: Hinson apologizes for plagiarism after N.Y. Times story, blames staff
Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, on Monday apologized for plagiarism that the New York Times reported finding on her campaign website and in published opinion pieces and blamed a staff member.
Hinson is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer for Iowa’s First Congressional District seat in a tightly contested race that has garnered national attention.
The New York Times reported Hinson “has lifted verbatim sentences on her campaign website and in published op-eds more than a dozen times since her campaign began last year.” The plagiarism included passages from stories by that newspaper, the Des Moines Register and CNBC, according to the Times. It also noted that Hinson’s “platform on veterans issues uses near-identical language” to Finkenauer’s.
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KCRG: Hinson apologizes, blames staff after journalist uncovers plagiarism
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – A candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in eastern Iowa issued an apology on social media after a journalist for the New York Times identified passages on her campaign website that had been copied from that newspaper and others.
…The Times showed paragraphs from Hinson’s website which copied a story from that newspaper word-for-word, accounting for 91 words out of a 642-word page. The article listed other examples of passages taken from other news outlets, including the Des Moines Register and The Hill.
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