Fareed Zakaria, the TIME magazine columnist and CNN host, has been suspended for a month after it was revealed he violated TIME standards by using the work of another writer in one of his columns.
Newsbusters was first to spot the lifting in a column about gun control. FishbowlNY has the comparisons of Zakaria’s TIME piece to that of a column from Jill Lepore earlier this year in The New Yorker.
Zakaria apologized earlier today. Then late this afternoon, TIME released this statement: “TIME accepts Fareed’s apology, but 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. As a result, we are suspending Fareed’s column for a month, pending further review.”
Zakaria also hosts CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” Sundays at 10amET/PT. One of the topics on Sunday’s show is gun control. We’re awaiting word from CNN about whether Zakaria will be sidelined there as well.
>Update: CNN is also suspending Zakaria.
“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.”
>Another update: Zakaria’s Sunday CNN program has been replaced with “Your Money” this weekend.