Justin's Political Corner

Time magazine and CNN both suspended journalist Fareed Zakaria on Friday after he was caught plagiarising from The New Yorker in the latest scandal to hit the world of American journalism.

Zakaria, who writes columns for Time and hosts a CNN television show, had written an article for the magazine on the issue of gun control following the recent mass shootings in Colorado. A short version also appeared as a blog post on CNN’s website.

However, several blogs, such as conservative media watchdog Newsbusters and the National Review online, spotted similarities between parts of Zakaria’s column and a piece on the same topic in an April issue of the The New Yorker.

The paragraphs in question largely involved descriptions of historical events and context about gun control in America and do not seem anywhere near as serious as other famed plagiarists – such as Jayson Blair at The New York Times and Stephen Glass at The New Republic who made up entire quotes, people and incidents.

CNN also suspended Zakaria and did not put a time limit on it. “We have reviewed Fareed Zakaria’s TIME column, for which he has apologized. 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,” the broadcaster said in a statement.

H/T: The Guardian