New York Magazine columnist Ross Barkan faces plagiarism allegations, prompting an internal review of his past work. The allegations arose when Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell accused Barkan of borrowing content from his May 9 article about Ben Shapiro for a similar piece on Shapiro’s business.

Harwell highlighted similarities between the two articles, leading New York Magazine to update its story with a note crediting the Washington Post. Despite this, Harwell expressed uncertainty about the situation. Following Harwell’s comments, NPR correspondent Bobby Allyn identified further instances where Barkan appeared to use similar phrases from The Intercept and Compact Magazine in other articles.

Allyn wrote that some passages mirrored existing content, noting instances of up to 30 identical words or near-identical passages with slight tweaks. New York Magazine announced a review of Barkan’s previous work in response to these allegations.

Barkan defended himself in comments to Fox News Digital, asserting, “I did not plagiarize anyone” and labeling the accusations as “ridiculous.” He criticized Allyn’s reporting methods on his social media account, citing a late email inquiry as “deeply unserious.” Barkan emphasized his extensive publishing history, stating only three stories were under scrutiny and asserting proper citations were in place.

In response to the ongoing debate, Harwell insisted that Barkan copied his opening almost verbatim and maintained his accusation by sharing NPR’s report. @RossBarkan copied my lede almost word for word,” Harwell wrote. Compact Magazine editor Matthew Schmitz supported the plagiarism claims, particularly regarding Barkan’s use of Juan David Rojas’ work.

Schmitz addressed Barkan’s defense, stating that simply linking to an article is insufficient. He claims that this is a-ok because he linked to Juan’s article. No. That isn’t how it works, Schmitz wrote.