Fareed Zakaria admits to plagiarism

The celebrated American journalist Fareed Zakaria has been suspended from his job at Time magazine and CNN after he conceded that an accusation of plagiarism was valid. He is quoted as follows: "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 22nd 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." The snaring of Zakaria in the plagiarism net seems a stunning development. Reports on the incident say Zakaria was apparently using language from the column which described historical conditions with respect to guns and gun control. The material did not, apparently, repeat critical analyses or exclusive information about an individual or event. It  might be called soft plagiarism. No such lesser offense is currently understood when plagiarism is charged. It is never to be condoned but in background writing plagiarism is easily committed. As it stands, plagiarism is a journalistic capital crime, with punishment meted with zero tolerance  The offense, as always, is not in the use of the material but in the failure to attribute it. . The Guardian

ZAKARIA'S COLUMN

“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.’”

LEPORE'S COLUMN

“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.’”