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Steal From The Best? Time's Fareed Zakaria Admits Plagiarizing From New Yorker


By

John Del Signore

Published Aug 10, 2012

Modified Aug 10, 2012


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By

John Del Signore

Published Aug 10, 2012

Modified Aug 10, 2012


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Time Magazine editor at large Fareed Zakaria has been suspended from the magazine after admitting to stealing from a New Yorker article. Today the conservative website Newsbusters found that Zakaria's recent column on gun control contains a paragraph that is very similar to a paragraph in Jill Lepore's article "Battleground America," which appeared in the New Yorker in April. After Newsbusters pointed out the striking similarities, Zakaria, who also makes bank as a CNN host, issued this statement

Media reporters have pointed out that paragraphs in my Time column this week bear close similarities to paragraphs in Jill Lepore’s essay in the April 23 issue of The New Yorker. They are right. I made a terrible mistake. It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologize unreservedly to her, to my editors at Time, and to my readers.

"Time accepts Fareed’s apology, but what he did violates our own standards for our columnists, which is that their work must not only be factual but original; their views must not only be their own but their words as well,” a Time spokeswoman tells the Times. “As a result, we are suspending Fareed’s column for a month, pending further review."

In June, the Boston Globe reported that Zakaria's commencement speech at Harvard was pretty much identical to a speech he gave at Duke 11 days earlier. "I spoke to him while he was here,” one Duke employee told the Globe, “and I got the strong impression from him that his Harvard speech would be a different presentation. Oh, well, at least Duke got it first." New Yorker subscribers can also take comfort in that!

UPDATE: Ouch, and now there's this:

BREAKING: CNN suspends Fareed Zakaria indefinitely as well, says he plagiarized same stuff for a blog post for CNN.com

— HuffPost Media (@HuffPostMedia) August 10, 2012

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fareed zakaria

the new yorker yes the new yorker


John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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