Disgraced Mamdani-loving journo Ross Barkan apologizes after being caught plagiarizing 67 times

Now he’s sorry.Disgraced journalist Ross Barkan issued an odd apology for 67 instances of plagiarism that cost him his gig at New York Magazine and the launch of his new book — after initially lashing out at the first people to catch him and claiming the allegations were somehow a form of “character assassination.”Barkan changed his tune Wednesday, days after New York Mag axed him and a publisher killed the release of his new book on Mayor Mamdani, whom Barkan frequently cheered.“I am truly sorry for the mistakes I made,” Barkan moaned on X.“None of them, genuinely, were willful or intentional.”He went on to offer a weird explanation for the 67 pieces “that did not include proper attribution of language, information and/or sourcing,” according to New York Mag.“In the course of many columns a week, I did not use citations aggressively as I should have and did not paraphrase well enough,” Barkan wrote.

“I never intended to crib from anyone’s work.“I recognize, though, how I failed.I am sorry to the journalists whose work I did not properly cite.” Sounding a bit like a local pol — Barkan unsuccessfully ran for state senate in 2018, an effort for which Mamdani served as campaign manager — he concluded by saying he’s going “to take some time away and self-reflect.” “I promise to do a much better job going forward,” he added.The mea culpa marked a stark shift in Barkan’s tone compared to his initial angry reaction.When NPR reported on Barkan rip-offs in May, Barkan accused the NPR reporter of “character assassination.”“I’m proud of my record, my work, and stand by it.

I won’t be bullied,” Barkan wrote in a since-deleted post on X.The scandal began days earlier, when a Washington Post reporter noticed striking similiraties between the lead of one of his articles and the lead in a Barkan piece on the same subject.New York Mag went on to conduct a four-month review of Barkan’s work for the lefty publication, in ...