Publisher suspends sales of reporter's book after allegations of extensive plagiarism

Penguin Random House has suspended public sales of a book by journalist Ross Barkan after allegations of extensive plagiarism in political columns he wrote for New York Magazine while working as a freelancer. 

In May, Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell raised concerns that Barkan had published a column about conservative commentator Ben Shapiro that Harwell said showed strong similarities to a column he'd written. Barkan's article in New York magazine was later updated to credit Harwell, the Washington Post reported. 

NPR also found instances of potential copying, which prompted New York to initiate a review of Barkan's work. On Friday, the magazine announced it had concluded the review and was ending its relationship with Barkan. 

Lauren Starke, a spokeswoman for the magazine’s parent company, Vox Media, wrote Friday in a statement that Barkan's work did not adhere to the company's editorial standards, and it was updating 67 columns that didn't provide proper "attribution of language, information, and/or sourcing." 

Barkan's book "The Revolutionary: Zohran Mamdani and the Remaking of American Politics" was scheduled for publication in October, and Penguin Random House had been promoting it. But by Monday, all mention of it had been scrubbed from webpages for the book on major bookselling sites, including Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Target and Walmart. 

Penguin Random House also removed it from their website.