Fareed Zakaria Sure Looks Like He Stole From The New Yorker [Updated]

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:

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Giant Sinkhole Opens Up in Brooklyn, Nearly Eats Car [Updated]

The Earth went looking for a snack in Brooklyn on Wednesday when a 20-foot deep, 20-foot wide sinkhole opened up between 4th and 5th avenues in Bay Ridge at about 6 p.m., according to CBS. Several cars lined the collapsed portion of the street. Fortunately the sinkhole didn't swallow any vehicles, however it got at least a taste of one that leaned into the gaping hole. “We’re so blessed," said the Zen-like car owner. "If we were five minutes later or anything, we could have been in the hole." Another cavity formed earlier in the summer in the same neighborhood. The cause is unknown and we're not geologists, but our recollection of high school Earth Science tells us this is a pretty clear cut case of an undernourished Earth.

Update: NY1 has reported that the cause of the sinkhole is a sewer main break that will require repairs lasting through the weekend. Mystery solved.

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Mitt Romney Does Not Exactly Endorse a Preemptive Israeli Strike on Iran [Updated]

Romney at the Wailing Wall. (Photo by Lior Mizrahi - Pool/Getty Images)

Mitt Romney has arrived in Israel, where he immediately found himself in the middle of another overseas mini-controversy. This one wasn't totally his fault, though — it was his foreign policy adviser Dan Senor who, in previewing the candidate's speech in Jerusalem tonight, suggested Romney would support a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities. "If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability," he said, "the governor would respect that decision." 

A short time later, the campaign tried to soften the statement, saying that it's Romney's "fervent hope that diplomatic and economic measures" will be enough to dissuade Iran, but it wasn't fast enough to keep the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, the Washington Post, USA Today, Reuters, the Guardian, the Financial Times, and others from running headlines saying that Romney supports a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran.

Update: Romney appeared on CBS's Face the Nation, where he said that Israel and America "come together in peace that want to see Iran be dissuaded from its nuclear folly." In what appeared to be a reference to this morning's confusion, he added, "Let me use my own words in that regard." While citing the fact that he was on foreign soil as a reason for not getting into policy specifics (current or proposed), he said he felt diplomatic tools should be used "with the greatest speed that we can muster." But, he said, "We do have other options, and we don't take those other options off the table."

He also delivered the speech previewed by Senor. It did seem different from the version described this morning, with no direct mention of military action against Iran, though he did again mention Israel's "right to defend itself." He also said preventing Iran from gaining nuclear capabilities "must be our highest national security priority": 

Romney also praised former Boston Consulting colleague and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (or Bibi, as he called him at the start of his remarks), with whom he met earlier today. The two seemed eager to play up their relationship -- Netanyahu referred to Romney as "a personal friend" and even complimented the candidate's apparent agelessness ("We’ve known each other for many decades, since you were a young man, but for some reason, you still look young.")

Sheldon Adelson also attended the speech, though the billionaire donor played it coy. When asked why he'd made the trip to Israel, he responded, "I came to get a shwarma sandwich, what do you mean?" Hopefully they'll serve those at tomorrow's much-discussed King David Hotel breakfast. 

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