Famed neurosurgeon and potential 2016 presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson has apologized for his failure to cite some of the sources used in his 2012 book "America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great."
Carson, a conservative who could end up running for president, issued a statement to BuzzFeed saying that he "missed" some citations in the book, which he wrote alongside his wife Candy Carson, and that he plans to rectify the situation with his editors.
"I attempted to appropriately cite and acknowledge all sources in America the Beautiful, but inadvertently missed some," he told the outlet. "I apologize, and I am working with my editors to rectify the situation."
Dr. Ben Carson, professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, turns back to the audience as he puts his notes back in his pocket after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference annual meeting in National Harbor, Md., Saturday, March 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Carson's publisher, Zondervan, affirmed that changes will be made to future editions, with a spokesperson telling BuzzFeed that "further source citation is appropriate" for the book.
Sealy Yates, the literary agent representing Carson, told the Associated Press that Carson had given all of his sources to the publisher before the book went to print and that he assumed Zondervan would ensure attribution was in place.
"We know for certain that Dr. or Mrs. Carson had no intent to plagiarize," Yates told the Daily Caller this week, reflecting comments made to the AP. "That was not what they were trying to do."
He added, "The Carsons, in writing this book, did everything that they thought they were supposed to do to provide the source material for their book and both in terms of footnoting, providing attribution, as best they could."
Dr. Benjamin Carson speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton February 7, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
BuzzFeed first published a story Tuesday titled, "Ben Carson’s History Book Plagiarizes SocialismSucks.Net And Many Other Sources," detailing a number of sources from which material had reportedly been lifted.
One of the purportedly plagiarized authors, though, has come out in defense of Carson, as conservative historian Bill Federer issued a statement in which he said he felt misrepresented by BuzzFeed's coverage — a statement the outlet included in its latest article on the subject.
He added that he had granted permission to Carson and believed that the missing citations "were simply editor's oversight."
You can see the examples of the word-for-word sources used in Carson's book that are detailed in the original BuzzFeed article here.
(H/T: BuzzFeed)
