New York Magazine has terminated its association with columnist Ross Barkan following a probe into allegations of plagiarism. The magazine’s investigation revealed that Barkan did not comply with editorial standards, leading to updates in 67 columns where attribution was improperly handled. The publication has revised these columns to include correct attribution and acknowledged these changes in their archives.
The magazine’s statement expressed regret over Barkan’s work not meeting its editorial standards and issued an apology to the original authors whose work was not duly credited. As a result, Barkan’s column will no longer be published.
Barkan himself addressed the issue, stating the decision to end the column and extending his best wishes to New York Magazine. He admitted to occasional lapses in citation over his nearly 250 articles and expressed intent to improve. Barkan hinted at launching a new column in September.
The plagiarism accusations emerged when Drew Harwell, a Washington Post reporter, accused Barkan of borrowing content for a piece on conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. This led to New York Magazine incorporating an editor’s note that acknowledged credit to the Washington Post. Harwell noted uncertainty about the situation.
NPR correspondent Bobby Allyn identified more instances where Barkan appeared to have used similar language from The Intercept and Compact Magazine. Allyn highlighted passages where Barkan reportedly repeated nearly identical language, with some stretches containing up to 30 consecutive words.
Initially, Barkan denied the allegations of plagiarism, describing the situation as “ridiculous.”