Don't Quote Me

Is anyone really surprised that a liberal commentator/columnist has no ethics?

Time, CNN Star Fareed Zakaria Suspended for Admitted Plagiarism

Star?!? I'll let that one pass for now. In the meantime, here's the story about the 'star.'

When CNN host and Time editor-at-large Fareed Zakaria wrote a new piece called “The Case for Gun Control,” it ended with a bang: “So when people throw up their hands and say we can't do anything about guns, tell them they're being un-American--and unintelligent.”

Here’s something that suggests a lack of intelligence: plagiarism. Cam Edwards at NRANews.com suggested to me that Zakaria seemed to plagiarize a paragraph from an April article in The New Yorker magazine -- with a modicum word-usage changes and interjections (Texas!) in an attempt to paper it over.

It's not the first time Zakaria's been accused of lifting things.

Zakaria's cover story today on Iran contains the following sentence: "In an interview last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the Iranian regime as a 'messianic, apocalyptic cult.'"

In an interview with whom, exactly? Zakaria's wording makes it seem as if the interview was conducted by, oh, Fareed Zakaria, but as best as I can tell, the interview was conducted by yours truly, for The Atlantic. And not, by the way, "last week," but in March.

A few paragraphs later, Zakaria writes, "One of Netanyahu's advisers said of Iran, 'Think Amalek.'"  Said it to whom? Again, yours truly, for a New York Times op-ed piece that did, indeed, run last week.

Are these people so stupid that they think no one can do some basic research? Do they take us for complete idiots? (Rhetorical questions - don't bother to answer.)

At least Time and CNN are pretending to have some semblance of journalistic ethics.

Time has suspended Zakaria, saying in a statement:

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.

CNN has also suspended Zakaria.

In a statement released to the press, Zakaria has admitted his plagiarism:

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.

Of course, if Time, CNN, and Zakaria were really sincere, he would be fired/resign, not just settle for a slap on the wrist.

Oh well, I guess that's what passes in the liberal press for integrity these days...