New York magazine reviews Ross Barkan amid plagiarism allegations

New York magazine is reviewing the prior work of Ross Barkan after plagiarism allegations surfaced around at least three of his stories, including a piece on conservative influencer Ben Shapiro that appeared to lift heavily from a Washington Post article by Drew Harwell. The magazine said it is “conducting a review of the writer’s prior work,” a response that puts its editing and fact-checking process under the same scrutiny as the reporting itself.

The Ben Shapiro story became the clearest flash point after readers noticed similarities to Harwell’s work. Once the issue was raised on social media, New York magazine updated Barkan’s story to directly quote Harwell, whose opening paragraphs had been lifted nearly wholesale. Barkan did not deny relying on other writers’ work, deepening the concern that the problem was not a one-off error but part of a broader pattern.

A second allegation involved a report about Donald Trump’s alleged covert operations in Venezuela, adding to the sense that the controversy extends beyond a single article. Matthew Schmitz, the editor of Compact Magazine, condemned what he called Barkan’s “heavily plagiarized” article. Taken together, the accusations have raised a basic question for any newsroom: how closely were these stories vetted before publication, and how much original reporting was actually inside them?

The stakes are sharper because Barkan is not just a contract writer for New York magazine. He is also the author of a forthcoming book, The Revolutionary: Zohran Mamdani and the Remaking of American Politics, from Penguin Random House, due out October 6, 2026. The book is described as a behind-the-scenes, deeply reported account of Mamdani’s campaign and early days as mayor, which means any doubts about Barkan’s sourcing could spill over into a marquee political title tied to one of New York City’s most closely watched figures.

That connection matters in a media environment where Mamdani coverage has already been intensely contested. Mamdani announced his run for mayor of New York City on October 23, 2024, and his rise has drawn repeated attention from New York magazine itself. With a book on his administration now on the way, the plagiarism allegations do not just threaten one writer’s reputation. They test the credibility of the reporting pipeline around a major political story still shaping New York’s debate over power, access and trust.