There is now little question that Fareed Zakaria is guilty of plagiarism. He has admitted copying a portion of a New Yorker essay and apologized. Time, where Zakaria works as a columnist, has suspended Zakaria for a month, and CNN—owned by the same parent company—has suspended him pending an investigation. This represents a mere slap on the wrist for someone whose standard speaking fee is $75,000.
As Yale University lecturer Jim Sleeper notes, however, Zakaria has a perch not only at CNN and Time, but also at Yale University, where he sits on the Yale Corporation, the University’s governing board and policy-making body. There is no greater academic sin than plagiarism. Students can be expelled for plagiarizing papers, and professors can be fired. To let Zakaria off the hook on his own recognizance would be to eviscerate the principle of academic integrity for which Yale says it stands.
Whether Yale President Richard Levin will do the right thing, however, is another issue. While Levin has distinguished himself as a master fundraiser, he has also shown a disturbing willingness to undercut free speech (ironically, with Zakaria’s acquiescence), compromise academic integrity to foreign interests, and embrace fame over principle. Seldom is an issue as cut-and-dry as Zakaria’s plagiarism. Unless Yale seeks to demonstrate that cheating is acceptable and that there is no principle to which it will not turn a blind eye, then it really has no choice: It is time to give Zakaria the boot.
Mr Rubin, you just don't get it. There are rules for ordinary people but those rules don't apply to intellectually superior liberals. Ask the sex predator Bill Clinton or Harry "light skinned negro who only sounds that way when he wants to" Reid.
I'm still trying to recover from the idea that Fareed, that sophistic guru of conventional wisdom, is paid $75,000 a speech. Has this man ever said or written anything remotely memorable (he doesn't even seem to plagiarizer interesting material)?
Killer_Paisley, $75,000 is apparently also Thomas Friedman's speaking fee. That's the going rate for "sophistic gurus of conventional wisdom." (To borrow your elegant description.) n nNow the big question is, with Zakaria discredited who will President Obama turn to for foreign policy advice in addition to Thomas Friedman?
Plagiarism is wrong and should be punished, probably as you suggest, but the truth is the Academy elevates a relatively minor sin to cardinal sin because they stand for no other principle than originality of words. What about stealing someone's ideas, but not their words? Isn't that worse? Like covering your tracks? Fareed could have done the exact same thing with a few changes in order, syntax and diction and all would be deemed OK. Isn't idea theft worse than word theft? Even more: what about academics with repulsive ideas? Like Holocaust deniers. Is plagiarism of banal words really worse than originally written Holocaust denial and the like? The values of academia are upside down. Plagiarism is about all we can hold it to, so we should, but it is really thin soup.
I am continually astonished that plagiarizing or not, someone took this lightweight seriously.
The fact that he had to plagiarize is an indication of how he got to where he did. A liberal hyphenated American he was merely a pass through for his liberal media masters while filling the bill for a "minority face". No originality of thought or depth of thinking was required and in fact such traits would have consideration of him as being off the media plantation. This is the liberal equivalent of the Hollywood casting couch.
$75,000/speech? By who? I'm serious. As to Yale firing a liberal hypocrite with a Muslim sounding name…that is a hanging offense in itself. I'm pretty sure the "President"of Yale doesn't want to be hung. Pigs will fly in formation first before he dangles. We should all be impressed that Fareed had the moxie to get someone to plagiarize for him. Ain't America grand?