One month after Arash Markazi was placed on paid leave by the Los Angeles Times, his year and a half tenure with the paper came to an end amid accusations of plagiarism. 

A longtime sports columnist and Los Angeles native, Markazi announced his resignation from The Times in an Instagram post Friday. Markazi was graceful in his exit and called working for the LA Times a “dream come true,” making no mention of the plagiarism allegations. A non-disparagement agreement prevents him from commenting further. 

In mid-July, The Times began formally investigating the accusations as Vice News reported specific examples of plagiarism against Markazi. The report also stated members of the paper’s sports staff campaigned against their colleague, sending a letter to management which claimed plagiarism and improper use of social media by Markazi.

It’s important to note that while Markazi is being accused of plagiarism, none of the accusations include stealing work from other journalists. In each instance of plagiarism laid out by Vice News last month, they were all either examples of Markazi recycling his own work or pulling a sentence from a press release to provide information such as ticket prices or contractual numbers.

In the case of recycling his own content, Vice News provided two columns from Markazi, one from ESPN in 2018 and the other from the LA Times last year.

For an ESPN column in 2018, Markazi offered the following description of watching March Madness at the Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas:

“… 40,000-square-foot ballroom on the fourth floor, complete with 12 22’x12′ HD projection screens, a center bar surrounded by 16 more HD monitors, a hardwood basketball court and a dedicated on-site sportsbook. Admission to the party, which included an open bar for 13 hours, went for $225 each and sold out on Thursday and Friday. The party attracted more than 6,000 customers over the first three days of the tournament.”

One year later, Markazi provided an almost identical description of the hotel for his column with the LA Times. 

“… 40,000-square-foot ballroom on the fourth floor into a giant “man cave” complete with 22 22-foot-by-12-foot HD projection screens, a center bar surrounded by 16 more HD monitors, a hardwood basketball court and a dedicated on-site sports book. Admission to the party, which included an open bar for 13 hours, went for $225 each day and sold out on Thursday and Friday. The party attracted more than 6,000 customers over the first three days of the tournament.”

Markazi recycled his own content in offering statistics for the Cosmopolitan Hotel. But he fact checked and adjusted the information as shown by the additional ten 22-foot-by-12-foot HD projection screens that were added from 2018-2019. It was recycled details and information, not even an opinion or idea. 

A similar instance occurred in 2016 when Tom Kludt, then of CNN, noticed Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press gave an opinion of Colin Kaepernick which paralleled a 2003 column he wrote about Manhattanville College basketball player Toni Smith, who turned her back to the American flag during the national anthem to protest the Iraq War. This after Albom was suspended for a short period by the paper in 2005, for fabricating a column which described two NBA players as being in attendance for an NCAA Final Four game even though they weren’t there. 

Neither incident led to Albom parting ways with the Detroit Free Press. 

While LA Times staffers were also reportedly critical of Markazi’s social life and social media presence, the paper seemed supportive of his reach when they sent him to the Super Bowl in 2019. The intent of the trip was to “experience Super Bowl week in South Beach with Arash Markazi as your guide.”

“I’m going to be reporting this trip in real time at @LATimesSports on Twitter and also on latimes.com/sports,” Markazi wrote ahead of the 2019 Super Bowl where he was on assignment with the purpose of giving LA Times’ readers an inside look at the event’s parties. 

Vice News also reported updates were recently made to the examples of plagiarism from Markazi’s LA Times columns in question.

For context on those columns, Markazi mentioned Clayton Kershaw’s nonprofit on Dec. 16, 2019, he then referenced and wrote their mission statement, “…seeks to serve vulnerable and at-risk children living in L.A., Dallas, Zambia and the Dominican Republic.”

The Aug. 7 update as noted by Laura Wagner gave attribution to Kershaw’s charity for use of their mission statement. 

Markazi’s actions can certainly be construed as lazy or corner-cutting, but the headline of “plagiarism” is essentially journalistic suicide and implies stolen work. With that in mind, it’s fair to ask what was more damning for Markazi as he exits his dream job – his actions, or the co-worker campaign against him.