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Friday, August 10, 2012

Books Did Fareed Zakaria Plagiarize from the New Yorker?

Posted by on Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 11:25 AM

The Atlantic says that a piece Fareed Zakaria published in TIME magazine appears to be very similar to a piece Jill Lepore published in the New Yorker back in April, with at least three different passages that share rhythms, sources, and vocabularies with Lepore's story. Zakaria did not comment when asked about the similarities, but The Atlantic says they've heard that he'll issue an apology soon.

If Zakaria finds himself in need of a job, I would like to encourage him to apply for The Stranger's Public Editor position. I'm not sure Jonah Lehrer's going to work out.

Update 11:45 am: Just got a statement from a TIME spokesperson in my inbox that reads, in its entirety: "TIME takes any accusation of plagiarism by any of our journalists very seriously, and we will carefully examine the facts before saying anything else on the matter."

Update 1:27 pm: Got another statement from a TIME spokesperson:

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. As a result, we are suspending Fareed's column for a month, pending further review.

A whole month! Boy, that'll teach 'im. And here's a statement from Zakaria:

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. 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.

Well. That just clears everything up.

Update 2:20 pm: And here's a comment from CNN:

We have reviewed Fareed Zakaria’s TIME column, for which he has apologized. 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.

Man, corporate synergy sure can bite you on the ass sometimes, can't it?

 

Comments (9) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
Joe Szilagyi 1
It's amazing this keeps happening. Do they just assume they'll go uncaught, in this day and age?
Posted by Joe Szilagyi http://twitter.com/joeszi on August 10, 2012 at 11:45 AM
2
@1: It's far more common with prolific writers like Zakaria that a staffer/intern produced it. Ultimately he's responsible, of course, but highly unlikely he was aware of the source.
Posted by bigyaz on August 10, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Will in Seattle 3
@1 yes. The more prominent and elite they are, the more likely hubris and a sense of entitlement kicks in.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on August 10, 2012 at 12:02 PM
4
I really like Fareed Zakaria, both as a TV personality like on The Daily Show, and as an author of books.

I am hoping there is a reasonable explanation other than "plagiarist".
Posted by Gilt, By A Thin Layer Of Association on August 10, 2012 at 12:05 PM
5
If this is true, he was probably banking on the assumption that Time and New Yorker readers don't overlap.
Posted by sahara29 on August 10, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Cascadian Bacon 6
Yea you guys should hire him, you need another pseudo-intellectual hack.
Posted by Cascadian Bacon on August 10, 2012 at 8:00 PM
7
@4: He's an asshole shill, maybe you should rethink who you idolize instead of assuming, wrongly, that he's not responsible.

That's how these entitled assholes get away with it over and over again.
Posted by but they're so niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice on August 11, 2012 at 11:33 AM
Barbara Stoner 8
If he's a pseudo-intellectual hack, then he's a pseudo-intellectual hack like me, who really *is* a pseudo-intellectual, and possibly a hack as well. As far as I can tell, from the excepted passages, they are barely re-written paragraphs that cite statistics and other facts of public knowledge. As a writer, I can tell you that it is very difficult to find another way to phrase a paragraph of stats and facts. There they are. They are the same, no matter who uses them.

I cannot believe that Fareed was looking directly at The New Yorker piece and just copied it off. Far more likely that a researcher found the material and included it, slightly rewritten, for the stats and facts it includes. All of your "probably's" don't apply at all.
Posted by Barbara Stoner http://www.barbarasbookhouse.com on August 11, 2012 at 1:22 PM
Barbara Stoner 9
If he's a pseudo-intellectual hack, then he's a pseudo-intellectual hack like me, who really *is* a pseudo-intellectual, and possibly a hack as well. As far as I can tell, from the excepted passages, they are barely re-written paragraphs that cite statistics and other facts of public knowledge. As a writer, I can tell you that it is very difficult to find another way to phrase a paragraph of stats and facts. There they are. They are the same, no matter who uses them.

I cannot believe that Fareed was looking directly at The New Yorker piece and just copied it off. Far more likely that a researcher found the material and included it, slightly rewritten, for the stats and facts it includes. All of your "probably's" don't apply at all.
Posted by Barbara Stoner http://www.barbarasbookhouse.com on August 11, 2012 at 1:41 PM

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