CNN has suspended Fareed Zakaria, host of Sunday morning international affairs program “CNN: GPS” following his admission that he lifted portions of an article on gun control for Time magazine from a New Yorker piece by Jill Lepore without attribution.
Zakaria’s column, “The Case for Gun Control,” in the current edition of Time magazine includes multiple paragraphs that are similar to passages in Lepore’s piece in the April edition of the New Yorker. After the situation was flagged by NRANews.com, National Review Online and Newsbusters, Zakaria issued an apology on his CNN blog, calling the plagiarism “a terrible mistake” and “serious lapse.”
In a statement, CNN acknowledged that Zakaria “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.”
CNN said the length of the suspension was “to be determined.” On Sunday, the 10:00 a.m. edition of “CNN: GPS” will be replaced by “State of the Union with Candy Crowley,” which will air live from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Crowley’s show will be followed by “Reliable Sources” with Howard Kurtz, followed by “State of the Union” again at noon. A replay “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” will air at 1:00 p.m.
Time, which like CNN is owned by Time Warner, also suspended Zakaria, stating that his actions “violates our own standards for our columnists.” Zakaria’s Time column is suspended for a month, pending further review, according to the magazine’s statement.
