WNYC staffer Jami Floyd authored 45 articles that were removed from wnyc.org and Gothamist websites last week after an internal review revealed parts of them were plagiarized, The Post has learned.
Floyd, 57, was the director of New York Public Radio’s Race & Justice Unit and its legal editor until Monday morning, when she abruptly resigned from her post.
The resignation occurred after WNYC pulled down the allegedly plagiarized articles and told Floyd they were a fireable offense, a source familiar with the situation told The Post.
Meanwhile, Floyd has already indicated that she plans to sue WNYC – calling a press conference for Tuesday morning in which she plans to speak out about what she described as “alleged racism and discrimination at WNYC.”
The allegedly plagiarized articles were published over a period spanning back to 2010, when Floyd first started writing for the outlet as a freelancer. Some of the posts included entire paragraphs lifted word-for-word from other sources – including Wikipedia, the source claimed.
“They reviewed everything she’d ever written [for the station],” the source told The Post. “They were all versions of plagiarism, whether ripping off whole sentences or summarizing other people’s work without crediting them.”
“She was aware it was a fireable offense and they had been talking to her about separating,” the source added.
WNYC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Last week, WNYC revealed in an editor’s note that it had deleted the articles, which included 41 posts on WNYC.org and four posts on Gothamist.com, due to what they described as “violations of our editorial standards.”
The editor’s note said 42 of the articles were found to “contain unattributed passages from other sources,” while the other three were published on other websites in identical form. The note did not identify Floyd as the author.
“WNYC takes its editorial standards very seriously and is committed to providing audiences with the highest quality news and analysis,” the outlet said in its note.
While the articles were removed, some archived versions are still available. In one instance from 2017, an article with Floyd’s byline detailed four possible outcomes from then-Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s Senate confirmation hearing.
A search revealed the passage may have been lifted directly from an article published by the Daily Signal – which used the same numbered format used to illustrate the four outcomes.
Signs of scrutiny pertaining to Floyd’s body of work at WNYC first surfaced last November, when the New York Times reported Gothamist had deleted four articles were her byline. The articles pulled lines directly from Wikipedia entries and publications such as Salon without attribution, according to the Times.
At the time, Floyd acknowledged “mistakes” had occurred but denied they were “intentional or designed to deceive anyone.”
“My fellow journalists work hard to express themselves and I would never want to borrow another author’s work, even inadvertently,” Floyd said. “To the extent that I have done so, I am deeply sorry.”
Floyd kept her job after that incident – but lost key responsibilities related to her role as head of the race and justice unit, the Post has learned.
“She was allowed to remain at the station, except that she could no longer write or edit journalism,” the source said.
WNYC conducted a full review of every article Floyd had ever written for its websites after a separate article by the Columbia Journalism Review, which detailed internal turmoil in the newsroom over the outlet’s editorial practices, according to the source.
CJR said it found “at least five more WNYC…
Read More: WNYC’s Jami Floyd accused of plagiarism in 45 articles dating back to 2010