Time and CNN suspend Fareed Zakaria for plagiarism

Ini Ekott with agency report | (PHOTO SOURCE: abcnews.go.com)

Time magazine and CNN have suspended columnist and TV host, Fareed Zakaria, after admitting he plagiarized from another magazine, New Yorker.

Mr. Zakaria, 48, is a well respected columnist for Time and a host for news programme, GPS, on the Cable News Network. He was suspended for a month on Friday while further reviews are carried out, both organizations said.

Time and CNN are owned by Time Warner.

Mr. Zakaria admitted he lifted portions of an article written by New Yorker writer, Jil Lepore, which was initially published in April. The unattributed version authored by the TV host appeared in the wake of the recent twin shooting incidents in United States. He apologized to his viewers, readers and his Editors, and also apologized to Mr. Lepore.

Mr. Zakaria said it was “a terrible mistake” and “ a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault.”

“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,” CNN said in a statement.

Separately, Time said it accepts the columnist’s apology, but would suspend his column for one month, pending further review.

Mr. Zakaria, is a CNN host, an editor at large at Time, a Washington Post columnist and an author. He was born in India and graduated from Harvard and Yale.

The comparison:

Mr. Zakaria:

Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA, documents the actual history in Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. Guns were regulated in the U.S. from the earliest years of the Republic. Laws that banned the carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813. Other states soon followed: Indiana in 1820, Tennessee and Virginia in 1838, Alabama in 1839 and Ohio in 1859. Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma. As the governor of Texas (Texas!) explained in 1893, the “mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man.”

Ms. Lepore:

As Adam Winkler, a constitutional-law scholar at U.C.L.A., demonstrates in a remarkably nuanced new book, “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” firearms have been regulated in the United States from the start. Laws banning the carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813, and other states soon followed: Indiana (1820), Tennessee and Virginia (1838), Alabama (1839), and Ohio (1859). Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma. As the governor of Texas explained in 1893, the “mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man.”

The scandal comes less than two weeks after a prominent science writer for New Yorker, Jonah Lehrer, admitted fabricating quotes for his best-selling book “Imagine: How Creativity Works.” Mr. Lehrer was forced to resign