Only months after giving nearly identical commencement speeches to Duke University on May 13 and Harvard University May 24, Farreed Zakaria, CNN host, editor at large at Time, Washington Post columnist and author, is back at it again.
The website NewsBusters noted close similarities between Zakaria's column, "The Case for Gun Control" in the Aug. 20 issue of Time and another gun-related article by historian Jill Lepore, which appeared in The New Yorker Apr. 23, according to The New York Times.
“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," Zakaria said in a statement Friday. "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.”
His apology, however, was not enough, as Time and CNN suspended Zakaria as the result of his dishonesty.
“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,” said Ali Zelenko, a spokeswoman for the magazine, in the release.
The New York Times provided excerpts of the plagiarized and original text:
Zakaria:
Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA, documents the actual history in Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. Guns were regulated in the U.S. from the earliest years of the Republic. Laws that banned the carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813. Other states soon followed: Indiana in 1820, Tennessee and Virginia in 1838, Alabama in 1839 and Ohio in 1859. Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma. As the governor of Texas (Texas!) explained in 1893, the “mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man.”
Lepore:
As Adam Winkler, a constitutional-law scholar at U.C.L.A., demonstrates in a remarkably nuanced new book, “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” firearms have been regulated in the United States from the start. Laws banning the carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813, and other states soon followed: Indiana (1820), Tennessee and Virginia (1838), Alabama (1839), and Ohio (1859). Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma. As the governor of Texas explained in 1893, the “mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man.”
Although CNN and Time are the only news sources that have suspended Zakaria, others are looking into reviewing his work.
“Fareed Zakaria is a valued contributor. We’ve never had any reason to doubt the integrity of his work for us," said Fred Hiatt, the Washington Post’s editorial page editor, in the release. "Given his acknowledgment today, we intend to review his work with him.”
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