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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 C NN has joined the fray, saying they have suspended Zakaria. Your Money with Ali Velshi will take over his spot.

Copyright 2020 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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