[DadaSeeva]

Time and CNN suspend Fareed Zakaria for plagiarism - Yahoo! News

CNN host and Time magazine contributing editor-at-large Fareed Zakaria was suspended by his employers on Friday after he acknowledged copying material for a recent column he wrote about gun control from another writer.

Time said it was suspending Zakaria for one month, "pending further review," and CNN said it had also suspended him for his journalistic misstep. CNN put no time limit on its suspension.

The sanctions came after Zakaria issued a public apology for borrowing from a recent New Yorker essay about gun control for a column he wrote for Time this week.

"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 23rd issue of the New Yorker. They are right. I made a terrible mistake," Zakaria wrote in his apology.

"It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault."

Ali Zelenko, a spokesman for Time, said the magazine accepted Zakaria's apology but felt compelled to act against him because he had violated its standards for all columnists.
He's sorry he got caught.

[jimmy28]

Good, Fareed Zakaria is one of the many reasons whats wrong with news these days....Too much opinion, not enough journalism.

[Matajic]

Probably a lot of such "journalists" could be tagged for plagiarism... concepts and major points get borrowed all the time.. few seem to be original thinkers anymore, nevermind original writers.

[catarleriarly]

Probably a lot of such "journalists" could be tagged for plagiarism... concepts and major points get borrowed all the time.. few seem to be original thinkers anymore, nevermind original writers.

I don't think an act of plagiarism and original thinking are all that related, actually. Fareed Zakaria is far better and has far better guests than your average CNN/MSNBC/Fox host. He may have plagiarized but he's still better than the hosts who manage to say absolutely nothing in their allotted hour. It's quite easy to say absolutely nothing in your own words.

[PymnImmen]

Probably a lot of such "journalists" could be tagged for plagiarism... concepts and major points get borrowed all the time.. few seem to be original thinkers anymore, nevermind original writers.

These weren't "concepts and major points," though: the paragraphs probably would have turned up a 70-80% match on the plagiarism software that universities use these days.

In any case, what he stole and how much of it doesn't matter too much. If he got caught walking out of an Apple Store with an iPhone case in his pocket or with a MacBook Pro shoved in his pants, he gets arrested for shoplifting either way. A big difference is that intellectual property is worth a lot more.

[Greactbet]

Probably a lot of such "journalists" could be tagged for plagiarism... concepts and major points get borrowed all the time.. few seem to be original thinkers anymore, nevermind original writers.

If it weren't for things others have said and written over the centuries, my own writing would be much the poorer.

I hope you all are smart enough to catch the references to them when I work them in. Of course, most of them have been around so long and are so widely circulated that they no longer either require attribution or are considered attributable. And for those that are not, working in a catchphrase probably falls under fair use.

The overwhelming majority of writers, I dare say, borrow from or channel some other writer in their work from time to time.* That's not the issue. The issue is how we borrow, and how much we borrow. Zakaria clearly crossed that line.

*I like to think that I was either the first person or one of the first people to refer to this place we call home as "a small town masquerading as a big city," and I know I felt something when I saw that phrase in someone else's prose, but I probably wasn't the first to use it by a long shot.

[remstaling]

My point was that commentators now a days simply beg, borrow, and steal from one another-- and to a larger extent now than ever, due to the information age that we are all living in. This is obvious when you take a look at the topics of conversation on pretty much all the major news/policy outlets; nobody is thinking outside the box, as it were, and guests make the rounds of all the usual suspect talk shows, even further narrowed down depending on which side of the spectrum they fall in. They get asked pretty much the same questions too. That is why an outlet like PBS News Hour has to devout time to segments specific to rarely told stories in America... which is when coverage of much-less talked about issues comes to play.

American newsmedia has mostly become a joke, and if you don't see that then perhaps you have allowed your standards to be brought down.

Fareed could simply have cited his sources, for at least a big chunk of his article, and everyone would go home happy. On his CNN show, he usually ends up talking stuff that NYT articles covered a couple weeks or a month ago... same difference, but nobody pays attention.

[BlackBird]

If it weren't for things others have said and written over the centuries, my own writing would be much the poorer.

We're not talking about quoting Plato or Shakespeare here, but rather about policy ideas... his work simply doesn't feel like it's breaking new ground in terms of new thoughts... that building on top of what others have done part. His book "Post-American World" could possibly be written by Tom Friedman and nobody would know it...

[BipiewExifese]

Having read Fareed's article just last night, and the essay today, he absolutely plagiarized her essay.

I've been a TIME subscriber for 10 plus years, and I have a problem that that it wasn't caught ahead of time. Probably because he's their popular poster boy and he can do whatever he wants. I hope he's blacklisted from the field.

[DoctorNelsonOnten]

Please, he'll be fired from Time but someone one else will pick him up, he's a brand and will do whatever he wants...and get paid.


Which is why journalism is dead.

[Singukil]

Please, he'll be fired from Time but someone one else will pick him up, he's a brand and will do whatever he wants...and get paid.


Which is why journalism is dead.

Maybe he can be Obama's new foreign sect when Hillary leaves.