Editing Gerald Posner (section)

==Controversies==

===NSA Surveillance of Princess Diana and the Paget Report===
In 1999, in the premier September issue of [[Talk (magazine)|''Talk'' Magazine]], Posner wrote about the mistakes of French and British investigators in the 1997 death of [[Diana, Princess of Wales]] ([https://www.posner.com/geraldposner/2015/08/al-fayeds-rage-Posner-9-1999.html "Al Fayed's Rage"]). According to Posner, "an active U.S. intelligence asset" let him listen to "an innocuous portion of an undated conversation between [Princess] Diana and di Lima (the wife then of the Brazilian ambassador to the United States)."  The recording, Posner reported, "was one of several collected by the National Security Agency." [https://www.posner.com/geraldposner/2015/08/al-fayeds-rage-Posner-9-1999.html According to Posner], "The NSA never directly targeted Diana, but picked up her conversations as an incidental part of a separate monitoring operation."  The NSA refused to acknowledge that the surveillance tapes existed but did admit that it had [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2006/12/12/nsa-denies-monitoring-calls-of-princess-diana/900ec011-812a-4b69-a8be-edb1427d9bb9/ "39 classified documents about Diana totaling 124 pages."] News that the NSA might have spied, even inadvertently, on the Princess of Wales, [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/aug/06/monarchy.freedomofinformation caused a furor] in the United Kingdom.

Posner also reported that the driver of the car in which Diana was killed, Henri Paul, [https://www.posner.com/geraldposner/2015/08/al-fayeds-rage-Posner-9-1999.html had met with his French intelligence handler] in the hours before the fatal crash. "In fact, according to an American law enforcement official and an American intelligence agent, Paul spent the last several hours before the crash with a security officer from the DGSE. That may come as news to the French police; in an internal report a French police commandant named Jean Paul Copetti concluded that it was 'not possible' to determine Paul's whereabouts during that time."

In 2006, Scotland Yard released [https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/news/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/14_12_06_diana_report.pdf The Operation Paget Inquiry Report Into the Allegation of Conspiracy to Murder: Diana, Princess of Wales and Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed]. [[Operation Paget]] was the result of a multiyear investigation by the British police into lingering questions about whether the death of Princess Diana might have been the result of foul play. The Paget investigators interviewed Posner. The final report confirmed that driver Henri Paul had in his possession 12,560 French Francs at the time of his death. That was the amount Posner had reported Paul's intelligence handler had given him in cash only a few hours before the fatal accident. According to the British investigators, "The DGSE stated that they did not know Henri Paul. Gerald Posner gave ‘source’ information that they were with Henri Paul on Saturday night. Even if correct, the source stated that the meeting was of a routine nature and not connected to the Princess of Wales’ visit to Paris. She was apparently only discussed in passing."<ref>The Operation Paget inquiry report into the allegation
of conspiracy to murder Diana, Princess of Wales and Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed Report, p. 191</ref>

[[Operation Paget]] also reviewed Posner's charges about the NSA in the report's Chapter 15, "Central Intelligence Agency/National Security Agency, USA." As to the portion of a taped conversation Posner heard, the British investigators concluded "The inference from Gerald Posner’s information was that the Embassy, and not the Princess of Wales, was the subject of any telephone interception....Gerald Posner’s sources did not indicate to him that the Princess of Wales herself was under targeted surveillance by the NSA. The importance of such information, had there been any, would not be lost on the sources and it is reasonable to assume that they would have passed on that information to Gerald Posner had they been in possession of it."<ref>The Operation Paget inquiry report into the allegation of conspiracy to murder Diana, Princess of Wales and Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed Report, p. 736, 741</ref>

''The New York Times'' titled its coverage of [[Operation Paget]] as [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/world/europe/15diana.html "The Final Word on Diana's Death (Don't Bet on It)]". It reported on what Posner heard when the intelligence source had played him a small part of a surveillance tape: 

<blockquote>"Lord Stevens said he felt confident that nothing had been withheld from him, and added that even if the intelligence agencies had been eavesdropping on Diana, which they had not been, they would not have heard anything interesting.

For instance, the American investigative writer Gerald Posner says in the report that through a source, he heard an intercept of a telephone call between Diana and Lúcia Flecha de Lima, wife of the Brazilian ambassador at the time. The inference, the report says, was that the embassy, not Diana, was being bugged.

What did he hear? 'I could only decipher a British woman and a woman with a slight Hispanic accent talking about hairstyles,' he said."</blockquote>

===Plagiarism and quote falsification===
In 2010, Posner was the chief investigative reporter at ''[[The Daily Beast]]''. Following the revelation that a number of Posner's stories for the ''Beast'' contained portions plagiarized from articles in other publications, Posner resigned from the ''Beast''.<ref name="The Posner Plagiarism Perplex"/><ref>{{cite web|last=Bustos |first=Sergio R. |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/11/1473780/gerald-posner-quits-daily-beast.html |title=Gerald Posner resigns from Daily Beast amid plagiarism allegations |publisher=Miamiherald.com |access-date=September 19, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Shafer |first=Jack |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2243850/ |title=Plagiarism at the Daily Beast: Gerald Posner concedes lifting from the Miami Herald  |publisher=Slate Magazine|website=Slate.com |date=February 5, 2010 |access-date=September 19, 2010}}</ref><ref>[http://www.slate.com/id/2243991/ More Posner Plagiarism], by [[Jack Shafer]], ''[[Slate magazine]]'', February 8, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/salon/2010/04/01/daily_beast_lifts_from_salon/index.html Daily Beast lifts from Salon – again] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100403232238/http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh/salon/2010/04/01/daily_beast_lifts_from_salon/index.html |date=April 3, 2010 }} by Joan Walsh. April 1, 2010.</ref> According to Posner, the plagiarism was inadvertent and the result of the "compressed deadlines" of the ''Beast'' and confusing his assembled research with his own writing in the "master files" he assembled on each story. Allegations of plagiarism also surfaced concerning his book, ''Miami Babylon'' (October 2009).<ref>[http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/03/gerald_posner_plagiarized_seve.php Gerald Posner Plagiarized Several Passages in Miami Babylon, Author Says], by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', March 16, 2010.</ref><ref name="mnt1">[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-04-01/news/gerald-posner-plagiarized-new-times-pbs-and-many-others/ Gerald Posner plagiarized New Times, PBS, and many others] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110107065130/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-04-01/news/gerald-posner-plagiarized-new-times-pbs-and-many-others/ |date=January 7, 2011 }}, by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', March 30, 2010.</ref> Posner said the ''Miami Babylon'' plagiarism occurred because of a new system of "trailing endnotes", because an individual he interviewed read one of the plagiarized sources and reiterated it during the interview, and because he mistook other people's writing for his own after scanning source documents into a computer database.<ref>[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-03-25/news/gerald-posner-plagiarizes-again-this-time-at-book-speed/php Gerald Posner plagiarizes again, this time at book speed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503101155/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-03-25/news/gerald-posner-plagiarizes-again-this-time-at-book-speed/php/ |date=May 3, 2012 }}, by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', March 25, 2010.</ref><ref>[https://abcnews.go.com/print?id=10124625 Posner Says He Failed to Source Material for Book], by Hillel Italie, ''ABC News'', March 17, 2010.</ref> The ''[[Miami New Times]]'' also found that Posner "seems to add, subtract, or misattribute quotes" and displayed a series of such "apparently altered or misattributed quotes".<ref name="mnt1"  /><ref>[http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/03/more_gerald_posner_plagiarism.php More Gerald Posner Plagiarism in Miami Babylon, From New Times, PBS, and Many Others], by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', March 30, 2010.</ref>

Posner subsequently hired attorney [[Mark Lane (author)|Mark Lane]], threatening litigation against the ''Miami New Times''  on grounds of [[tortious interference]] (i.e., that its investigation and reporting of this case damaged Posner's business relationship with his publishers) and emotional distress. Posner's choice of attorney was particularly notable, as Lane was a well-known conspiracy theorist in regards to the death of President John F. Kennedy, while Posner had written his debunking of such theories in his 1993 book, "Case Closed".<ref name="pr">[http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/attorney-mark-lane-retained-by-author-gerald-posner-to-represent-him-in-media-case-93667849.html Attorney Mark Lane Retained by Author Gerald Posner to Represent Him in Media Case], May 13, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/05/gerald_posner_hires_rush_to_ju.php Gerald Posner Hires Rush to Judgment Author Mark Lane in Plagiarism Case], by Tim Elfrink, ''Miami New Times'', May 13, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Plagiarism-Plagued-Posner-Hires-Grassy-Knoll-Guru-to-Take-On-New-Times-93694679.html Plagiarism Plagued Posner Hires Grassy Knoll Guru to Take On New Times], by Jessica Sick, "NBC Miami", May 13, 2010.</ref> In a press release, Posner stated "Although I'm convinced Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy, I've always believed that had Mark Lane represented Oswald, he would have won an acquittal. That's why Mark Lane was the obvious choice as my own attorney."<ref name="pr"  /> Soon thereafter, the ''Miami New Times'' published evidence of additional plagiarism from multiple sources in both ''Secrets of the Kingdom'' and ''Why America Slept''.<ref>[http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/05/gerald_posner_plagiarized_in_w.php Gerald Posner Plagiarized in Why America Slept and Secrets of the Kingdom, Research Shows], by Tim Elfrink, May 18, 2010.</ref> According to [[Poynter Institute]] senior scholar Roy Peter Clark, "This constitutes plagiarism by any definition I can think of.&nbsp;... The capturing of someone else's material that is this extensive cannot, in my opinion, have been done accidentally."<ref name="mnt2">[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05-20/news/posner-plagiarizes-again/ Posner Plagiarizes Again] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100521052838/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05-20/news/posner-plagiarizes-again |date=May 21, 2010 }}, by Tim Elfrink, May 20, 2010.</ref> Evidence was also presented indicating that Posner had repeatedly "scrubbed" elements of the journalism scandal from his Wikipedia page.<ref name="mnt2"  />

===Harper Lee lawsuit===
On May 3, 2013, Posner was named in a federal lawsuit brought by author [[Harper Lee]] in [[Manhattan]]. Lee claimed that [[Samuel Pinkus]], her literary agent's son-in-law, tricked her into signing away her rights to ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'', directing the royalties to be paid into a corporation formed by Posner for that purpose.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/agent_is_atticus_filch_dHGLvpNU7ivrWxftqQSlwL | url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607221801/http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/agent_is_atticus_filch_dHGLvpNU7ivrWxftqQSlwL |archive-date=2013-06-07 |title='To Kill a Mockingbird' owner sues to reclaim copyright to novel |first=Bruce |last=Golding |date=May 4, 2013}}</ref>

Before Posner filed an answer, he and one other defendant settled with Lee and were dismissed from the lawsuit.<ref name=":0">{{cite news| url=https://news.yahoo.com/kill-mockingbird-author-settles-copyright-suit-against-2-001300697.html|title='To Kill a Mockingbird' author settles copyright suit against 2 defendants; terms undisclosed|date=September 6, 2013|agency=[[Associated Press]]|work=[[Yahoo! News]]}}</ref>  The parties did not disclose the terms of the settlement.<ref name=":0"/>  Posner told the ''[[Miami Herald]]'': "I have always maintained that not a single contention about me in the complaint was accurate.  I was simply the wrong person named in the wrong lawsuit."<ref>http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/06/3609822/posner-off-the-hook-robin-thicke.html {{dead link|date=June 2017}}</ref> To ''[[Law360]]'', he said: "I am gratified the complaint was dismissed. There was never any basis for this lawsuit against me."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law360.com/articles/470604/harper-lee-settles-with-agent-over-mockingbird-copyright|title=Harper Lee Settles With Agent Over 'Mockingbird' Copyright |publisher=Law360|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref>