Noted Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria has been suspended by his employers CNN and Time magazine after he admitted to plagiarism and apologised for the ethical lapse.
Mr Zakaria, was suspended by CNN and Time magazine after he admitted that he had plagiarised portions of an article he wrote on gun control for Time, from the New Yorker magazine.
He issued an apology saying he had made a “terrible mistake” and his lifting a paragraph from the article by Harvard University professor of American history Jill Lepore was an “ethical lapse“.
Mr Zakaria, 48, a Yale and Harvard graduate, had written the column on gun control that appeared in the August 20 issue of Time magazine.
Time said it was suspending Mr Zakaria’s column for a month, pending review.
“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,” Ali Zelenko, a spokeswoman for the magazine said.
“As a result, we are suspending Fareed’s column for a month, pending further review,” Time said.
CNN, on which Mr Zakaria hosts a weekly foreign affairs show ‘Fareed Zakaria GPS’, said it would suspend the show for an indefinite period pending review.
“We have reviewed Fareed Zakaria’s Time column, for which he has apologised. 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,” CNN said.
In a statement Mr Zakaria said, “Media reporters have pointed out that paragraphs in my Time column on gun control, which was also a topic of conversation on this blog, 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.”
Keywords: Fareed Zakaria, plagiarism, Time magazine, CNN, Jill Lepore, gun control, columnist
CNN and TIME both deserve appreciation for upholding the long standing institutional standard of press ethics.NONE IS INDISPENSABLE.
He is brilliant and well educated.A minor lapse did't cause any harm to the society or to an idividual.Where are the people whose "Faulty Intelligence" caused unfathomable miseries to many.
Moreover he has apologised.
Looks like plagiarism is an Indian trait,We had instances of some professors using the works
of others, and even the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India
admitted his folly.Also it seems Indians don't leave behind this posession while submitting
their passport but take it to the countries of their emigration.We had seen how a young
Indian Indian American woman writer "Got fame,got embroiled in plagiarism and got
disgrace".Now it happened to Fareed Zakaria.
Fareed Zakaria is one of the top global intellectuals. Even though he accepted the mistake but plagiarism is unacceptable sin and there is no redemption to the sin.
Plagiarism is a relative term. It is also debatable. Every writer or columnist borrow some ideas from the past talents. It is hardly a few who could able to give shape one's thought in words. That's why they come out distinguished from others. There are some intellects who are of the view that insome way or other it is natural way of thought process. But things are not always alike. What Mr.Zakaria did is the exact version which is identified with Ms.Lepore statement as his own.He had to pay price for it. But the question arises how many of such nature plagiarism being detected.
This is funny and as if Fareed was the only one at CNN who does this. There are people
who get books, columns and toner literary work done for them by shadow writers. This is
new reality. The world has no more original intellectuals.
First, we must appreciate Time and CNN for risking an unfilled column or TV spot to adhere to their standards. Second, I think we should accept Fareed Zakaria's apology at face value, and give him a second chance. One mistake should not bury anyone, we all make mistakes. As long as he realizes that he is wrong (which he obviously does), all his previous achievements stand on their own merit. Just because he has committed this error does not mean what he has achieved in the past is all a waste! Let us stop expecting other people to be perfect, while we ourselves are far from it.
Oh, Fareed! How could you do this to millions of your admirers and
readers worldwide? You had the nerve to ask the Gun Lobby tough
questions! Man, you had warnings since 2009. You didn't pay attention
to your bitter critics. You walked into your own failure!
Like many other South Asians in the names of Rajat Gupta, Raj
Rajarathnam and hundreds of other "luminaries" you have earned a place
in notoriety!
You tried to bite more than what you could chew! A real tragedy, Man!
Very sad, Fareed!
Just a couple of months back, there were reports that he gave the same commencement
speech at two universities, and that it was a repeat of a speech he had given last year, i
think. He seems to have a problem of ethics.
I enjoy Fareed's article in TIME. He has been a voice of moderation and reason. This is a sad news. We are only human, Fareed took responsibility for his ethical lapse. TIME magazine acted swiftly to contain the damage. I hope Mr. Zakaria would be extra careful from now on even when under the pressure of deadlines to produce the articles etc. I also hope after the month suspension Mr. Zakaria would be reinstated in TIME and CNN.
Unfortunate. Fareed generally gets his data right and attributes the data to the respective
authors. I believe two things happened here. He overlooked quoting the author for the
paragraph lifted because he was In a hurry to get this article out ( remember, the short
periodicity of Time meant that he needs to get this out before next magazine and the time
was hot to get an article on guns sold).
The other obvious thing is that the Guns' lobby has shown that gun is mightier than pen.
Its a mistake and he has apologised. TIME and CNN have quickly reacted
to it. We should move on and forgive him. His shows are amazing. Let us
give him a chance..
Mat 6:14-15 (NIV) "For if you forgive men when they sin against you,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But, if you do not forgive
men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."
Another high flying Indian Origin Superstar in US and World stage come reeling down. This has become all to familiar with Rajat Gupta, etc... Fareed Zakaria has overnight turned from role model to a case study to be avoided. Now Washington Post editor indicated they will dig into all past writings of Mr. Zakaria to find out if there are other instances of plagiarism. We seems to have track record of plagiarism .. remember Kaavya Viswanathan Harvard student who plagiarized a novel. There are many instances of Bollywood hits and music tunes lifted from Western films.. however we would expect much higher standards from a Role Model like Mr. Zakaria. I think we have not heard the last of this as more investigations will go into his writings over the last decade.
Gun control is a sensitive issue and the Second Amendment to the GREAT US Constitution protects the right of people of United States to bear arms. May be the US government has to think of controlling the automatic weapons. Crime Statistics show that many people die of knife inflicted wounds rather than gun shot wounds. Many states in US have checks to verify the back ground of the buyer of gun before granting license. NRA is a powerful lobby. In India many people die of stab wounds and remember it is difficult to get guns in India. Fareed Zackaria's poor judgement has landed him in hot waters. A man of good stature educated in Harvard he should not have plagiarized even unknowingly. America takes plagiarism very seriously and it is not India where you can plagiarize and escape.
Plagiarism is rampant in many academic fields. There are times when authors play with the minds of the readers by using indiscriminately the works of the others and fail repeatedly to name the sources.
Thus, they take ownership of other's fruitful works and deny that person of his rightful achievement. This is illegal and unethical.
Therefore, Farid Zakaria must be reprimanded severely for his unethical behaviour.
This will also serve as an apt lesson for all those who try to plagiarise in order to avoid the effort of developing their own ideas .
To err is human. He did admit to his mistakes! But what restores a reader's faith in
the institutions that they trust are the quick actions taken by these organisations that
employ him. In this case, we must appreciate TIME and CNN for the immediate
actions taken by them in suspending a renowned columnist. media
organisations in our country should take a leaf out of this
This very shocking to know such ugly incident. People of South Asia,
may be brought up any family, may be educated anywhere, may be working
anywhere, we are prone to indulge in such behavior, knowingly or
inadvertently. We have another such example of Rajat Gupta. Such
behavior could be normal in our society, we are experiencing, in
everyday life. We generally fail to appreciate the Kind of standard,
creativity and originality CNN, BBC and Times maintaining, these have
become unparallel institutions.
Maybe the Indian government will now start looking closely at risks
associated with honoring any successful Indian abroad with its Padma
Bhushan award. He has brought shame to the award as well, but can't
totally blame him for that. Humans are weak, we need moral education
more deeply built into us....
Feel sorry for the man. Haven't read the article but I know how serious
the issue is. Lets hope we donot see a series of such things now,
because now the whole world will start digging into works of other
columnists to find more of such cases.
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation,"
"close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's
"language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions".
This has been lifted by me from Wikipedia and it's a voluntary decision
requiring deliberation.
I fail to understand how Mr.Zakaria can say it's a 'MISTAKE'??
It is an unpredictable outcome. Knowingly or unknowingly breaking law
will effect the doer
Plenty of thoughts have passed on over thousands of years, mouth to
mouth, written on leaves of trees and books. It was hardly considered an
offence or anything close to a negative act, as information led to
knowledge and ultimately, folk-wisdom. In our modern age, however, the
New World America takes the matter of plagiarism seriously to protect
intellectual property and propaganda, devotes severe punishment to
wrongdoers. Will all this reduce the speed of breaking news or spreading it
across, only time will tell.
A real avoidable loss of face for him and india, for he was so identified with India. A
minor lapse ultimately ,but at his level it is unpardonable.
Mr.Zakaria, I used to be a big fan of you. I had great admiration for
you. I was shocked beyond belief when my American friend called and gave
me this news.There is no excuse.Knowingly,a person of your stature can
not afford to commit such a mistake. You scaled great heights in your
career. Now, with this grave error, you have lost your name.
Very costly mistake that may hurt him big time. Over the years, I developed a liking not only for his articles but also for his GPS show on CNN that aired interviews of FZ with the top leaders/ economists.
Plagiarism is a serious issue in the academic field.Now it seems to have crept into othere
arenas.It is time our students are made aware of this and the use of plagiarism softwares.
He should have simply attributed the paragraph to Ms. Jill Lepore! An acknowledgement would have saved the day! Alright Mr. Zakaria is a
celebrated journalist but all ideas cannot come to only him! Neither he
is a custodian nor a repository of ideas. There are others as well! Give
credit where it is due - he should have used his position to promote
others as well!
the power of gun lobby in US of a....is zakaria punishment, if i may say so, to harsh.....
the truth of the matter is Zakaria has been eyesore for western world for some years now....his article on US of A domestic gun culture, most powerful gun lobby in capitol hill fould it to nip at the bud....given the domestic shooting incidents in last few years where scores have been killed, the latest being gurudwara masacarre close to winconsin. If u or write that there are more guns in US of A consumed/ say bought, by individual citizens then those that may be the per capita of guns per citizen of a country is more than the density og guns per armymen among armies of many developing and developed nations.....then you are inviting trouble...the gun industry is lice cigerette, tobacco industry of yester years...most lethal lobby abd most potent lobby....after defence analyst of the world zakaria decided to critique domestic affairs, and that was death nail in his meteoric rise in journalist...
It is simply impossible to understand why Fareed Zakaria erred so badly. He could easily have attributed the particular statement to Ms.Jill Lepore which would have been the right thing to do. Since he overlooked even this elementary ethical principle, one suspects he might have acted similarly on various occasions in the past.It is impossible to regain the lost honour.This is an apt lesson for budding writers.
Great Stunt & Ridiculous! Prior to 2nd Gulf War the US media poisoned
the minds of ordinary Americans and others in pumping stories about
Saddam WMD. What was the consequences, millions of Iraqis lost their
lively hood, thousands were killed, 4 thousand American combats lost
their live, another few thousand were disabled, billions of dollars of
public money was spent and the President got the kiss of sandals. More
recent we can see the reports of Iran nuclear program, how the media
changing their deadline of Iran getting the bomb. The US media's
'Ethical lapse and terrible mistakes' had in the past and there will
in the future too to suit the 1 percent of the population.
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