Although a growing number of media outlets, including Politico, Esquire, and The Week, have declared CNN’s Fareed Zakaria a plagiarist, CNN chief Jeff Zucker told Politico Tuesday that, “We continue to have complete confidence in Fareed.”
“We continue to have complete confidence in Fareed,” Zucker told POLITICO after a luncheon with reporters on Tuesday.
When pressed further if that meant Zakaria would continue appearing on CNN, Zucker repeated that they have complete confidence in the host.
Over the last few weeks, two anonymous writers at Our Bad Media have documented numerous instances of Zakaria’s alleged serial plagiarism. The most serious instances appear to have occurred at CNN on Zakaria’s Saturday program “Fareed Zakaria: GPS.”
Respected experts on journalism ethics agree that Zakaria committed numerous instances of plagiarism, both big and small.
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Our Bad Media’s investigative efforts previously focused on Buzzfeed’s Benny Johnson. Johnson was quickly fired. You don’t need to understand all the ins, outs, and important nuances of plagiarism to know that what Zakaria’s been accused of is, in many cases, even more egregious.
The few media outlets covering the scandal have all noted the conspiracy of silence within the wider mainstream media. The elite media appear to believe that if they collectively pretend Zakaria didn’t do what he did, this will all go away.
Zakaria is a cherished member, a High Priest, among leftwing media elites, and even when it gives their own institution a black eye, the wagons are circled.
In August of 2012, CNN (along with Time) suspended Zakaria for lifting passages from the New Yorker. CNN lifted the suspension with the claim that Zakaria’s work had been scrutinized for plagiarism. None was found. Numerous examples found by Our Bad Media occurred during the time frame CNN said had been investigated.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC