Former New York Magazine writer and The Metropolitan Review editor-in-chief Ross Barkan has apologized again for plagiarism allegations and announced he will take time away to "self-reflect." The announcement follows New York Magazine's decision to sever ties with Barkan after an independent editorial review found that he "did not adhere" to the publication's citation standards.
Barkan stated on X, "I'm going to take some time away and self-reflect. I promise to do a much better job going forward." He previously stated, "I truly am sorry for the mistakes I made. None of them, genuinely, were willful or intentional. In the course of writing many columns a week, I did not use citations as aggressively as I should have and did not paraphrase well enough. I never intended to crib from anyone's work. I promise all of you that. I recognize, though, how I failed. I am sorry to the journalists whose work I did not properly cite."
The controversy began in May when Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell accused Barkan of lifting material from his report for a column. New York Magazine initially updated the article with an editor's note crediting The Washington Post. Subsequently, NPR correspondent Bobby Allyn identified additional instances where Barkan appeared to use similar phrases and descriptions from other publications, including The Intercept and Compact Magazine.
Initially, Barkan denied the accusations, calling them "ridiculous." However, New York Magazine announced it was ending its relationship with him, stating in a statement, "After an independent editorial review, New York found that Ross Barkan did not adhere to our editorial standards, and we have updated 67 columns that did not include proper attribution of language, information, and/or sourcing."
The publication added, "We have updated our archives to include proper attribution in all of the stories that our review found previously inadequate, noting that those updates were made, and are committed to addressing any other instances that come to light."
Barkan has not yet clarified whether he will retain his position at The Metropolitan Review. Fox News Digital reached out to Barkan and The Metropolitan Review for comment but did not immediately receive a response.