It took years and years and the attention of a new movie, but someone finally uncovered a smidge of plagiarism in the fired Vanity Fair Brit's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Daily Intel found near-identical passages from the book and a New York Times article by John Tierney. Young was unruffled, saying it wasn't plagiarism but loose English journalistic standards at work:
Upon being shown the evidence, Tierney, who had never read the book, concluded it was plagiarism. More bemused than angry, he remarked, "It's at the very least unattributed lifting..."
Young did in fact footnote Tierney's article in the book, however. "I don't think it's a sort of mealy-mouthed or weasely defense to say that the standard that British journalists are expected to hold themselves to are not as high as the standards that some American journalists hold," he explained to Intel. Hah. A mere cultural misunderstanding, then—British foreign correspondents, for example, are notorious for their rewrite jobs. In America, however, this is the sort of reasoning that can and will get you fired, Toby! [Daily Intel] [Photo: Nikola Tamindzic/Home of the Vain] —