The Washington Post corrected its August 13 story about Fareed Zakaria and wrote it "should not have published" the report. (Credit: Washington Post, screenshot, highlight added)

Clyde Prestowitz has retracted and apologized for his claims that Fareed Zakaria’s book The Post-American World didn’t credit him for a quote.  As we wrote yesterday, the Washington Post reported that Prestowitz said Zakaria’s first and paperback editions of his book didn’t attribute the quote to Prestowitz’s book Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East. Zakaria, who was suspended from CNN, Time and The Washington Post for a month after he was caught not attributing information in a Time column to the New Yorker, called the Prestowitz claims “totally bogus.”

The Daily Beast reported August 14 that the Washington Post’s claim was “false, as 10 minutes’ work by the Washington Post would have shown.”  The Washington Post corrected and apologized for its story, which it said it “should not have published,” because Zakaria’s book did credit Prestowitz.

Prestowitz sent iMediaEthics the below statement on the matter:

“STATEMENT BY CLYDE PRESTOWITZ RE FAREED ZAKARIA                      

“When Fareed Zakaria’s Post-American World first appeared in 2008, I found that it contained a quotation from my 2005 book, Three Billion New Capitalists. There was no end note number next to the quote. Thinking it may have been an oversight, I sent a note to Mr. Zakaria suggesting the addition of an end note. I received no response.

“Recently I suggested that Mr .Zakaria may have neglected properly to attribute the quote. However, since carefully reviewing several editions of his book, I have discovered that in an odd juxtaposition, reference to my book is made at the conclusion of an end note to one of Tom Friedman’s books. I had overlooked this reference earlier because the note was attached to Tom’s book title.

“While I believe that the current standards and format for attribution have become confusingly sketchy and misleading, the error was mine and I offer sincere apologies for the confusion, misunderstanding, and hurt that my suggestions and inaccurate reading caused.”

UPDATE: 8/15/2012: 10:20 PM EST:  Added information about the Daily Beast’s report