Fareed Zakaria suspended from Time magazine for plagiarism

The international columnist and television anchor immediately apologised, saying he had made a “terrible mistake” but was also suspended from CNN, where he presents a weekly show.
Several sections of Mr Zakaria’s August 20 column, entitled “The Case for Gun Control”, appeared to have been taken from an article Harvard University history professor Jill Lepore published in April in The New Yorker magazine.
One paragraph began: “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 US from the earliest years of the Republic.”
A corresponding passage in Lenore’s New Yorker essay, titled “Battleground America,” begins: “As Adam Winkler, a constitutional law scholar at UCLA, 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.”
The similarities were spotted by reporters and when confronted Mr Zakaria released a statement saying: “”Media reporters have pointed out that paragraphs in my Time column this week 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. 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.”
Time said it accepted his apology but had suspended him for a month, pending further review. A spokeswoman said: “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.”
CNN said a blog post written by Zakaria for its site had also contained unattributed material and that it would suspend him until further notice.
Last month, Jonah Lehrer, a young science writer, resigned from the New Yorker after it was revealed he had fabricated quotes attributed to Bob Dylan.