October 3, 2008

Quit stealing from Matt Labash, New Yorker writers!

By: Sonny Bunch

Media Bistro takes “The New Yorker’s” Peter J. Boyer to task for not tipping the homburg to Matt Labash, something that has now occurred in the magazine for the second time this year. Longtime readers will remember me blasting Jeffrey Toobin for doing much the same back in May. Is it really too much effort to say “As Matt Labash reported, Saunders said…”? I don’t think so.

To be fair, Boyer’s transgression is far less egregious than Toobin’s; Toobin seems to have lifted not only the idea for his piece from Labash but the structure as well. But still…it’s hard enough being a writer for a small political magazine without having your stuff lifted without attribution. Give my boy the credit he deserves.