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Time Suspends Fareed Zakaria for Plagiarism

He apologizes for lifting part of 'New Yorker' story on gun control

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 10, 2012 4:17 PM CDT

(Newser) – Time suspended columnist Fareed Zakaria for plagiarism today after he apologized for swiping parts of a New Yorker piece by Jill Lepore on gun control, reports the Huffington Post. "I made a terrible mistake," Zakaria wrote in a statement published at Atlantic Wire. "It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologize unreservedly to (Lepore), to my editors at Time, and to my readers." The magazine followed with its monthlong suspension of Zakaria, who also hosts a show at CNN. The conservative site NewsBusters first spotted the striking similarity between one long paragraph in particular, which quotes a UCLA professor. See for yourself here.

Fareed Zakaria during Harvard University commencement exercises in May, before being awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws.
Fareed Zakaria during Harvard University commencement exercises in May, before being awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 43 comments
Skepticnyc
Aug 12, 2012 1:34 PM CDT
Unless you have more evidence the firing squad seems premature.  The two paragraphs as they stand do not amount to plagiarism. Using plain facts reported by another journalist in a respectable magazine is not by any stretch of PC madness plagiarism.  The luckless Fareed did not lift the opinion of the New Yorker writer (about the "nuance" of the book) , just the facts.  He named the source, a book.  He just replayed the facts in the book, according to the New Yorker report.  Plagiarism is adopting someone else's art without attribution.  There is no art in the NTorker quote except for the "nuanced" compliment. You need a different example before you can charge plagiarism.  Is there one?  Presumably there is or Fareed has panicked and been derailed without justification.  Meanwhile everyone piles on the luckless fellow like dogs on a hare.  The lynch mob mentality is a danger to the community.  Maybe Fareed was right to fear it and cut it short. Repeating facts with their source in an order dictated by dates is not.
Jeffrey-Lebowski
Aug 11, 2012 5:29 AM CDT
He should be fired and exiled.
I_hate_to_say
Aug 11, 2012 5:19 AM CDT
Zakaria's comeuppance is long over due -- how ironic that it comes as a result of his own efforts.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-sleeper/fareed-zakaria-plagiarism_b_1765903.html

 
plagiarism • New Yorker magazine • Time magazine • Fareed Zakaria • Jill Lepore

 
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