Zakaria. Gentlemen, start your engines and then drive to a bookstore and pick up some books authored by Fareed Zakaria and check them for plagiarism! Newsbusters has noticed that a passage from a recent Zakaria article on gun control in Time is very, very similar to a passage from an April New Yorker article by Jill Lepore. Here's Lepore's:
As you can see, Zakaria does not lift Lepore's passage word for word. He tweaks the language ever so slightly — enough, in his mind, perhaps, that crediting Lepore in any way was no longer required. It's shady. If you're going to rewrite an entire passage, with only the most imperceptible and inconsequential alterations, you might as well just quote the passage and source it to the person who wrote it. Otherwise, you are taking credit for work that isn't yours. This is generally frowned upon.
The Atlantic Wire has been "told" that Zakaria "will be releasing an apology shortly," while a Time statement says it "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." We've asked Lepore for her reaction and have yet to hear back.
The best-case explanation is that Zakaria's transgression was the result of sloppiness, as opposed to intentional deceptiveness. But this isn't even the first time that Zakaria has been accused of taking ownership of another writer's work. We hope those are the only examples and that there's no larger pattern of plagiarism here. But, if there is, the Internet will find it, eventually, once it has a reason to look. Ask Jonah Lehrer.
Update: Zakaria's apology, via Atlantic Wire:
Update II: Zakaria has been suspended. The full statement from Time, via Dylan Byers:
View the original article here
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