TIME conducted a “thorough review” of Fareed Zakaria’s work and has exonerated him of wrongdoing. TIME’s statement:
“We have completed a thorough review of each of Fareed Zakaria’s columns for TIME, and we are entirely satisfied that the language in question in his recent column was an unintentional error and an isolated incident for which he has apologized. We look forward to having Fareed’s thoughtful and important voice back in the magazine with his next column in the issue that comes out on September 7.”
Right after Zakaria’s “error” became public and he was suspended by TIME and CNN, a writer, Clyde Prestowitz of the Economic Strategy Institute, called the Washington Post to level a careless and scurrilous charge that Zakaria had plagiarized from him. The Post, just as careless, published the new charge without taking the five minutes that would have proven Prestowitz’s charge to have not a shred of truth to it.
Hooray for conservative columnist David Frum, who immediately wrote a blistering refutation of the Post charges yesterday in the Daily Beast, and then challenged three Post editors to correct the record. Today the Post issued a retraction and apology:
“The Post should have examined copies of the books and should not have published the article. We regret the error and apologize to Fareed Zakaria.”
I wrote four days ago that Zakaria would “long be diminished by the label, plagiarizer.” I hope not: he shouldn’t be. He is instead, a serious human being who made an unintentional error. I look forward to learning a lot from his future columns and telecasts.
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Inspiration: David Frum and the Daily Beast. Source: Daily Beast and Huffington Post
Tags: Clyde Prestowitz, CNN, Daily Beast, David Frum, ethics, Fareed Zakaria, Time, Washington Post
Ethics Bob 
August 17, 2012 at 1:41 pm |
Turning out quality, pertinent writing as a political news analyst on a continued regular basis is an incredibly difficult job. Zakaria has both insight and intellect and is outstanding at it. I enjoy his writings. But mistakes are easy in an intense ‘rush to get something out,’ too. You almost have to be superhuman to survive in it, and not make mistakes. In my own 20-yr. newspaper career I called subsequent, reflective criticism of a well-respected writer who’s stumbled mostly “piling on.” I sense there’s a good bit of that in this issue also.