America's accountability problem

Fareed Zakaria
In this file photo, Time columnist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria moderates a panel discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting September 21, 2006 in New York. In Aug. 2012, he was caught lifting from a New Yorker piece into his own column.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images

"What's wrong with America?" Stephen Walt asks in a recent article in Foreign Policy. His answer: lack of accountability, especially among political pundits.

In politics and punditry, Walt argues, "egregious and/or willful errors carry no penalty, provided their purveyors are sufficiently popular or aligned with well-heeled political interests."

Walt references CNN host Fareed Zakaria, who plagiarized a New Yorker article in his own piece for Time, but wasn't fired at either organization.

What are the larger cultural impacts of this lack of accountability? What can be done to remedy it?

Walt, professor of international affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, will join The Daily Circuit Monday to talk about accountability. Jane E. Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, will also join the discussion.

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