CNN Joins Time in Suspending Fareed Zakaria for Plagiarism (Updated)

The host of "Fareed Zakaria GPS" wrote a blog post for CNN.com that had unattributed excerpts

 

CNN suspended Fareed Zakaria on Friday hours after he apologized to Time magazine for plagiarizing paragraphs from a New Yorker article.

Time suspended Zakaria, its editor-at-large earlier in the day.

"We have reviewed Fareed Zakaria's Time column, for which he has apologized," CNN said. "He wrote a shorter blog post on CNN.com on the same issue which included similar unattributed excerpts. That blog post has been removed and CNN has suspended Fareed Zakaria while this matter is under review."

Zakaria's program "Fareed Zakaria GPS" usually airs Sundays at 10 a.m.

Also read: Time Suspends Fareed Zakaria's Column for a Month for Plagiarism

Sections of "The Case for Gun Control," his latest column in Time, appeared nearly identical to an April 23 article in the New Yorker by historian Jill Lepore.

"I made a terrible mistake," Zakaria, 48, said in a statement Friday afternoon. "It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologize to her, to my editors at Time, and to my readers."

The conservative media watcher Newsbusters reported the similarities in the two stories after receiving a tip from NRAnews.com, a National Rifle Association advocacy blog.

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

Also read: Jonah Lehrer and 'Imagine': A Cautionary Tale for Today’s Overachiever

The Washington Post, where Zakaria has submitted numerous op-ed pieces, said on Friday night that it plans to conduct a review of his work with him.

"Fareed Zakaria is a valued contributor. We've never had any reason to doubt the integrity of his work for us," editorial page editor Fred Hiatt said in a statement to TheWrap through a spokeswoman. "Given his acknowledgment today, we intend to review his work with him."

Zakaria drew criticism earlier this year after a commencement speech he delivered at Harvard apparently contained recycled material from one he gave earlier at Duke.

The plagiarism scandal erupted just more than a week after Jonah Lehrer resigned from the New Yorker in disgrace when a Tablet magazine reporter revealed that Lehrer had fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in his bestseller "Imagine: How Creativity Works" and lied when questioned about it.

Also read: Jonah Lehrer Compared to Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair by Journalism Professors

Lehrer's misdeeds revived the perennial public discussion about journalistic integrity as the "Imagine" author drew comparison to reporters like shamed Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair.

"To me, it's just so sad that it keeps happening with these talented young men," Geneva Overholser, director of USC's Annenberg school, told TheWrap soon after Lehrer's resignation. "It happened with Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair and, now, Jonah Lehrer."

Now, Zakaria — a journalist at the top echelon of the industry — may join that list.

 

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