You must have come across this story today on Mr Fareed Zakaria. I reproduce The
Washington Post story for the benefit of writers, media men and women, and more
important, academic scholars. This should be an eye-opener to the scholars who
write PhD theses, dissertations, and academic books. They perhaps already know that
there are software available to detect plagiarism. The Zakaria episode tells us
that there are people who detect plagiarism even without the use of such
software and expose the culprits.
Better be careful while we use words and thoughts of other without giving
due credit to the original author.
What is plagiarism? Please visit this blog post:
Now read about the Zakaria
episode:
Fareed Zakaria suspended for
plagiarism by Time, CNN
By
The Washington Post, which publishes a separate column by Zakaria on its op-ed page, said it was
reviewing Zakaria’s work for the newspaper.
Zakaria lifted several passages from an article by historian Jill Lepore that was published by the New Yorker magazine in April. In her article, Lepore wrote: “Laws banning the carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813, and other states soon followed. . . .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.’ ”
In his Time column, headlined “The Case for Gun Control,” Zakaria uses this wording:
“Laws that banned the carrying of concealed
weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813. Other states soon
followed. . . . 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.’ ”
The all-but-identical language was first
spotted by Cam Edwards, host of the NRA News radio program, and first published
byNewsBusters.org.
In a brief interview Friday with The Post, Zakaria said he has
apologized to Lepore. He had no further comment. Zakaria said in a statement earlier Friday that he made “a
terrible mistake. . . . It is a serious lapse and one that is
entirely my fault.”
Zakaria is a multimedia star. In addition to
his Sunday-morning program on CNN, “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” he writes regular columns for Time and
The Post, as well as books about world affairs. CNN said that it won’t air
Zakaria’s program Sunday and that it is reviewing his work. Time and CNN are
owned by Time Warner.
Zakaria’s next column for The Post is
scheduled to appear Wednesday.
“Fareed Zakaria is a valued contributor,”
said The Post’s editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt. “We’ve never had any reason
to doubt the integrity of his work for us. Given his acknowledgment today, we
intend to review his work with him.”
In 2009, Zakaria was accused of using, without
credit, material
published by Atlantic magazine columnist Jeffrey Goldberg.
Source:
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2 comments:
Wonder if it was simply laziness or a deliberate act of omission. If the latter was the case, then for what purpose? If he had given credit where credit was due, would he have lost stature in any way? I think not. On the contrary, his piece would have looked more authoritative.
Difficult to understand why he did it. Seems to me just a rash act. It can come from a suspension of the thought process or simply arrogance.
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