I’ve always thought that Fareed Zakaria was a bit too slick.
It’s not that I don’t like him. I share the pundit’s broadly liberal internationalist view towards world affairs. And unlike many wonks (the big exception here being the University of Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee), Zakaria’s actually got a sense of humor, which is always a plus.
But there was always something a bit too cute by half about this good-looking, well-spoken darling of the Center-Left with his million dollar smile.
So it didn’t come as a huge surprise when I learned that Zakaria had become embroiled in a plagiarism scandal that has – temporarily, at least – cost him two of his plum platforms: Time and CNN. On Friday, both news outlets suspended Zakaria while they investigated charges that he had lifted passages from an article by New Yorker writer Jill Lepore on gun control. He has since apologized to Lepore and taken full responsibility for the incident, which he described as a “serious lapse.”
Read the rest of this post on The Washington Post’s She The People website…
Image: Fareed Zakaria at the Newsweek Offices by barthjg via Flickr under a Creative Commons license
