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Time, CNN Suspend Fareed Zakaria's Column, After Plagiarism Claim

Fareed Zakaria.
Emmanuel Dunande
/
AFP/Getty Images
Fareed Zakaria.

A little more than a week after a major plagiarism scandal brought down science wunderkind Jonah Lehrer, Time magazine said it was suspending Fareed Zakaria's column for a month.

Zakaria is an influential and respected commentator on foreign policy and also hosts a show on CNN called Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Earlier today, the conservative media watchdog Newsbusters accused Zakaria of lifting parts of his Time column on gun control from a New Yorker article on the same topic.

The two excerpts posted on the site were dramatically similar, though Zakaria does change a phrasing here and there.

By this afternoon, Zakaria had apologized for the passages in a statement to Atlantic Wire. He admitted that media critics were right to be concerned and said he had extended an apology to The New Yorker's Jill Lepore.

"I made a terrible mistake," he said. "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."

The Atlantic Wire also reports that following his apology, Time decided to suspend his column for a month, "pending further review."

Update at 5:45 p.m. ET. CNN Suspends Zakaria:

Politico reports that CNN has joined the fray, saying they have suspended Zakaria. Your Money with Ali Velshi will take over his spot.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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