New York Magazine Drops Columnist Ross Barkan After Internal Review of Sourcing, Attribution

New York Magazine has ceased publishing columnist Ross Barkan following a thorough internal review that revealed 67 of his columns fell short of the publication's standards for accurate sourcing and attribution. The magazine disclosed this decision on Friday to TheWrap. In their statement, New York Magazine affirmed their commitment to their editorial standards, expressing regret over the work not meeting those standards and apologizing to the writers whose contributions were not properly credited.

This decision follows an independent review that began three months ago, sparked by allegations of Barkan repeatedly using language and reporting from other journalists without proper attribution. Barkan acknowledged his mistakes, vowing to improve his citation practices moving forward, and will continue to write a column for The Nation.

The controversy originated in May when Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell noticed similarities between Barkan's piece on conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and a column Barkan published shortly thereafter. New York Magazine subsequently revised Barkan's article to properly attribute the Post's reporting. NPR correspondent Bobby Allyn later identified additional instances in Barkan's work that mirrored material from The Intercept and Compact Magazine.

Despite disputing the plagiarism allegations, Barkan maintained he had correctly attributed the material and stood by his work. Barkan, a journalist and author based in New York, had been a regular contributor to the magazine's Intelligencer vertical. The decision to end Barkan's column was made after careful consideration, and the magazine expressed their regret over the situation.