Mr. Fareed Zakaria

Fareed Zakaria
The Washington Post
November 2014

In 1964, Fareed Zakaria was born in Mumbai, India to Rafiq Zakaria, a Muslim politician, and Fatima Zakaria, an editor for one of the several Indian newspapers. He endured a pleasant, forgiving childhood under the tutelage of a wealthy family and school in Mumbai. Zakaria then made the decision to travel to the U.S for higher levels of education: Yale is held responsible for his Bachelor of Arts while Harvard offered him a P.h.D in Government. From his experience as a project manager at Harvard, Zakaria has moved on in pursuit of a greater career. For brief lapses in his life, he has taught at Columbia University, been the editor for several papers, and written several pieces. At the current moment, Zakaria publishes articles regularly for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Fareed Zakaria has risen successfully from the most prestigious of schools and thus, attributes a sense of credibility to his own reputation. With a Bachelors from Yale and a P.h.D from Harvard, most other people will recognize this man as an authoritative speaker and hold him to great standards. Over the course of November 2014, Zakaria has made several notes regarding a multitude of both domestic and global events. He put Edward Snowden's return into perspective, elaborated upon a Chinese extension of power, and the extremist stereotype that threatens Islam.

Zakaria, according to Wikipedia, self-identifies as a centrist, in spite of what many others might assert. Forbes, an American magazine, labeled him as an influential liberal within media. However, Zakaria rebutted this assertion with a terse statement regarding his affiliations: "I feel that's part of

my job... which is not to pick sides but to explain what I think is happening on the ground." Personally, I find this incredibly respectable: prioritizing facts over opinions is indeed very important to informing the populations. Media should be held to standards that demand unbiased arguments.

However, each and every author has their flaws. Even he, I'm sure, must have slight bias. When it comes to his credibility, the debate rages on. Zakaria is clearly qualified for his field: he has several degrees, years of experience, and awards to show for it. In spite of these achievements, some gray areas have been spotted in his history. Zakaria has been accused of plagiarism once or twice in his career, a hefty crime especially for a writer. These controversies put into question his character and reliability. With that in mind, I would still rely upon Zakaria if he supports his argument thoroughly and discusses many facets to the topic.