'Those are my words, MailOnline'

On 22 October, Becky Crew wrote a post on the Running Ponies blog at Scientific American. It was about:

Eunice aphroditois, otherwise known as a bobbit worm.

Crew explained:

It lives on the sea floor at depths of 10 to 40 m, and has five antennae to sense its prey, such as smaller worms and fish, which it catches with a complex feeding apparatus called a pharynx. The pharynx can turn inside-out, like glove fingers, and has strong, sharp mandibles on the end. Sometimes its prey is cut clean in half because of the speed and strength of E. aphroditois’ attacks, and it can inflict a nasty bite if a human gets too close.

On 23 October, MailOnline published an article about:

Eunice aphroditois - also known as the Bobbit worm.

Damien Gayle, whose byline appeared on the MailOnline article, explained:

The creature, which spends its life mostly buried beneath the sand of the sea-floor, sticks just a portion of its body up into the water where it has five antennae to sense its prey, usually smaller worms and fish.

It snares its prey using a complex feeding apparatus called a pharynx which can turn inside-out, like the fingers of a glove, and has sharp mandibles on the end which snap shut like scissors.

Unlucky creatures are sometimes sliced in two because of the speed and strength of the worm's attacks, and it can dish out nasty bites to any humans who stray too close.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? 

Becky tweeted:

Neither Becky, nor Running Ponies, nor Scientific American are mentioned in the MailOnline article.

Becky also wrote this:

E. aphroditois is found all over the world where the ocean is warm, and is noted for its unusually large body size and length. Since the 19th century, scientists have recognised it as having one of, if not the, longest bodies among the polychaete worms – a class of highly segmented, mostly marine worms including the Christmas tree and Pompeii worms. Their average length is one metre, and specimens measuring a whopping three metres have been discovered in the waters of the Iberian Peninsula, Australia and Japan.

And MailOnline published this:

Noted for its unusually large body size and length, E. aphroditois is found in warm waters all over the world.

Since the 19th century, marine biologists have recognised it has having one of the longest bodies among polychaetes - a class of segmented, mostly marine worms.

They average a length of about one metre, but specimens measuring as long as three metres have been discovered.

Daniel Keogh (@ProfessorFunk) produced a colour-coded comparison of the articles, which he posted on Twitter:

Becky asked:

Many more examples of plagiarism by MailOnline can be found here.

(Hat-tip to Stephen)

More journalists accuse MailOnline of plagiarism

On 1 September, Press Trust of India correspondent Rezaul Hasan Laskar tweeted:

And:

The version of the article that appeared on MailOnline was a word-for-word copy of the original - but with a 'Mail Today Reporter' byline.

A few days later, an update:

And:

A similar 'error' occurred a few days ago.

On 25 August, OPEN Magazine in India published an article by Lhendup G Bhutia about a:

four-year-old who went missing in a jungle and returned 38 years later.

A couple of weeks later, a version of the story was published by MailOnline. Several days after, OPEN accused the Mail of plagiarism:

We are surprised to find that UK’s Daily Mail has carried a similar story, plagiarising portions of OPEN’s feature. Here, we present only the portions of the Daily Mail story that are direct lifts, ignoring those parts that have been more efficiently rephrased.

And they give examples:

WHAT APPEARED IN OPEN

She keeps her new possessions by a window. A bottle of metallic green nail polish, a plastic comb, tubes of moisturisers and fairness cream, and a maroon lipstick—all gifted by women in the village. When she wakes up every morning, she scrubs her face with cream, paints her nails—regardless of any grime underneath—and combs her long hair, which she has taken to tying with a hair band.

WHAT APPEARED IN DAILY MAIL

She keeps her gifts from her neighbours by a window - a bottle of metallic green nail polish, a plastic comb, tubes of moisturiser and lipstick.

When she wakes up every morning she scrubs her face with cream, paints her nails and combs her long hair, which she has taken to tying with a hair band.

+++

WHAT APPEARED IN OPEN

Surprisingly, for someone believed to have lived in a forest away from human habitation and bereft of any social skills, Chhaidy is not shy of human interaction, although her expressions of fondness are childlike.

WHAT APPEARED IN DAILY MAIL

Surprisingly, for someone believed to have lived in a forest away from human habitation for 40 years, Chhaidy is not shy of human interaction, although she is very childlike.

+++

WHAT APPEARED IN OPEN

Chhaidy, on the other hand, has received no medical or psychological attention. She spends her days moving from home to home, playing with anyone, young or old, who seems interested.

WHAT APPEARED IN DAILY MAIL

Since then she has received no medical or psychological attention. And she spends her days moving from neighbour to neighbour, playing with anyone, young or old.

And so on. There is no mention of OPEN in the Mail's article. 

MailOnline, overseen by Martin Clarke, was named newspaper website of the year earlier this year.

'Another example of Mail Online not bothering to change a word when cutting and pasting stories'

Yesterday, Daily Mirror football writer Simon Bird tweeted:

His article published at 22:30 on 15 June stated:

Everton are trailing Croatia striker Mario Mandzukic - and could land him for a bargain £7million.

The Croatia hitman, one of the stars of Euro 2012 so far with his three goals in two games, could be paired with team mate Nikica Jelavic at Goodison Park.

Mandzukic is on the radar of other Premier League sides too, because he is available at a “fair” price from his German club, Wolfsburg.

The 26-year-old was signed by Wolfsburg's then-coach Steve McClaren - a friend of Everton boss David Moyes' No2 Steve Round - for £6million and has two years left on his contract.

Everton were also interested in him two years ago, when he played for Dinamo Zagreb, and have had Mandzukic watched during the Euros.

His partnership with Jelavic at international level is thriving and could be rekindled on Merseyside.

The article on the Mail's website - which appears under the byline of 'SportsMail Reporter' - was published at 17:46 on 16 June and is a word-for-word copy:

In April, Mail Online publisher Martin Clarke told The New Yorker that his site 'adhered to fair-use rules'.

(Hat-tip to nutts2020)

UPDATE: By 6:25pm on Monday, the Mail's article had been removed.

Mara Wilson criticises the Mail's 'lack of integrity'

At the Olivier Awards earlier this month, the musical Matilda won seven awards.

Soon after, MailOnline published an article about Mara Wilson, who played Matilda in the 1996 film directed by Danny DeVito.

The Mail's article originally ran under the headline:

As musical dominates Olivier awards, former child star Mara Wilson, 24, rants about how film acting 'is tedious'

That then changed to:

What ever happened to the original Matilda? As musical dominates Olivier awards, we look at cute child movie star Mara Wilson, 24, as she abandons acting

It currently reads:

What happened to the original Matilda? As the hit musical dominates Olivier awards, former child star Mara Wilson, seen aged 24

Mara Wilson was less than impressed with the Mail and took to her blog (Mara Wilson Writes Stuff) to explain:

I had read articles in the Daily Mail before, so I knew what to expect: something cheap and sensationalist. What I did not expect was an article composed almost entirely of out-of-context quotes from my blog. There were no citations and there was no link to the original post on my site. It didn’t even seem to have been proofread: it ended mid-quotation.

Simple fact-checking escaped the author, as well: I was a Drama major at NYU, not an art major (I understand they’re both considered “useless” degrees, but the fact is easily verifiable); I was five, not four when I started acting and starred in Doubtfire (which is not a big deal, unless you either know a good deal about child development or take a second to realize that 1993 minus 1987 equals six and I would have has a birthday at some point that year); I’ve never had any “bit parts” in “low-budget films” (though I almost wish I had, as most of my favorite movies are low-budget movies. Blame my having dated an NYU film major for three years: film snobbery is contagious.)

It was a mess, and it made me seem bitter and ungrateful. I was less than thrilled.

She goes on:

The article has changed several times since then: there is now a link to my page, entire paragraphs have been shifted around or deleted. My description has also been updated from “the brunette” to “the young playwright,” which is nice: I prefer to be recognized for the things I do rather than what I look like. It still speaks of my “damning views” on child acting and implies that I am “bitter,” but the title no longer refers to my explanatory blog post as a “rant.” There is now an additional author’s name on the article. Some friends have suggested that I contact them to suggest they list me as a co-author. After all, I wrote half the article.

And:

a friend from NYU contacted a friend of his who writes for the Daily Mail to ask if he had anything to do with it. He said he hadn’t, but that if I was interested, they would give me the chance to write a piece for them. I declined, because they wanted it to be about child acting and I would have rather it been about the Daily Mail‘s lack of integrity.

She ends:

That said, what bothered me most was that I was not credited. Disrespectful comments about myself or what I did as a child I can deal with, and will be dealing with for the rest of my life. But I cannot abide disrespect and near plagiarism of what I’ve written....

This was not the easiest week, but a lot of good has come of it. Besides, I know now that if writing plays doesn’t pan out, I can easily get a job at the Daily Mail. I am an expert copy-and-paster.

(Hat-tip to Craig Silverman)

A cucumber ban?

A few days ago, the Mail reported:

The article 'by' Daily Mail Reporter begins:

An Islamic cleric living in Europe has said that women should not be close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any 'sexual thoughts'.

The unnamed sheikh was quoted by el-Sawsana news saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male relative, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.

The cleric said that these fruits and vegetables 'resemble the male penis' and could arouse women or 'make them think of sex,' in a story reported on Egyptian news website Bikya Masr.

And here's how the original article, published on 6 December by Bikyamasr.com, begins:

An Islamic cleric residing in Europe said that women should not be close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any “sexual thoughts.”

The unnamed sheikh, who was featured in an article on el-Sawsana news, was quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.

He said that these fruits and vegetables “resemble the male penis” and hence could arouse women or “make them think of sex.”

Very similar, isn't it? Eventhough Daily Mail Reporter has acknowledged Bikyamasr.com, the article is a shameless cut-and-paste job.

Except for one key sentence, which appears in the original but has been left out of the Mail's article. It says:

Bikyamasr.com cannot independently verify the accuracy of the news item at time of writing.

Why would the Mail leave that out? Instead, they run a story that cannot be verified about an unnamed person in an unnamed country without expressing any apparent doubt about its accuracy.

Moreover, the Mail has also failed to update its readers on a follow-up post written by Joseph Mayton, the Editor of Bikyamasr.com, on 11 December:

As Editor of Bikyamasr.com, I am disappointed that I did not catch and hold this piece. The “Islamic cleric bans women from touching cucumbers, bananas for sexual resemblance,” article should not have run when it did. Arguably, it should not have been run at all. We should not have published about an “unnamed sheikh” in an unnamed European country unless we were able to garner more information on the issue, both on the sheikh himself and the news website the information was gathered from, independently.

We realize that as a growing news organization with a growing reputation and readership, we have an increased responsibility to not only verify our own material at the highest levels, but further investigate the quotes and articles of other news organizations before referencing their work.

This is our error. We apologize for the poor judgment on the matter. It is inexcusable. While the exact quote reported by Assawsana.com may well have been exactly what it was reported to be by that website, without a name and location behind this person and comment, it is difficult to find the information credible.

We recognize our pitfalls and their repercussions. The fact that this story was quoted by a large number of news organizations across the globe shows that our error in judgment can have serious, detrimental effects. For this, we would like to apologize to our readers for the inadequate editorial judgment I, as Editor and Founder, made in this instance.

He adds:

We will continue to push for more information on this story, from Assawsana.com and other sources, in order to interrogate the accuracy of their original article. If we cannot uncover more information, then we take it as our duty to make this clear and do everything in our power to spread that revelation to those who have sourced and quoted us this past week.

But will the Mail be listening?

'Left struggling for words'

Yesterday, freelance journalist Rob Hastings tweeted:


The newsroom in question was the Independent's and his article appeared in that paper today:

There's a stink in the cheese world, and it smells unedifyingly of chicken tikka masala.

The Blur bassist Alex James, formerly a darling of the dairy community as a past winner at the British Cheese Awards, has astonished food critics by launching a supermarket range aimed at the family market, with flavours including curry, tomato ketchup and sweet chilli.

It's a far cry from Little Wallop, his goat's cheese wrapped in vine leaf and washed in Somerset cider brandy, which was a winner with judges in 2008. Even the cheesemaker who created it with him has been left struggling for words.

The article obviously went down well with the people at MailOnline, as Daily Mail Reporter soon produced an article on the same subject:

There's a stink in the cheese world, and it smells of chicken tikka masala.

Blur bassist Alex James, a past winner at the British Cheese Awards, has come up with the unusual creations including curry, tomato ketchup and sweet chilli.

It's a far cry from Little Wallop, his goat's cheese wrapped in vine leaf and washed in Somerset cider brandy, which was a winner with judges in 2008.

Even the cheesemaker who created it with him has been left struggling for words.

Indeed, Daily Mail Reporter 'produced' almost exactly the same article on the same subject.

Hastings continued with some quotes from:

Juliet Harbutt, an expert in the field and the founder of the British Cheese Awards, did her diplomatic best to contain her distaste at the prospect.

And:

Jeremy Bowen of the high-end artisan cheese sellers Paxton and Whitfield was supportive of the Alex James Presents line, which will be available solely at Asda from Monday.

Daily Mail Reporter also 'got' some quotes:

Juliet Harbutt, an expert in the field and the founder of the British Cheese Awards, did her diplomatic best to contain her distaste at the prospect.

And:

Jeremy Bowen of the high-end artisan cheese sellers Paxton and Whitfield was supportive of the Alex James Presents line, set to hit Asda shelves from Monday.

When Helen Lewis-Hasteley pointed out the 'similarities', Hastings tweeted:

(Hat-tip to Helen Lewis-Hasteley)

UPDATE: The MailOnline article was re-written and updated at 1.20pm. It now acknowledges the Independent as the source of the quotes.

Something fishy about Daily Mail Reporter's Captain Haddock tale

On 14 July, the Mail reported that some Tintin fans were unhappy about Captain Haddock's accent in an upcoming Spielberg film:

Attributed to Daily Mail Reporter, the article went to explain what a few people had written on various websites. It doesn't exactly justify 'up in arms'.

It's unusual for the Mail to report comments on messageboards that aren't about the BBC. So where did the story come from?

Well, around 20 hours before, The Scotsman published an article by Tim Cornwell which carried the headline:


Cornwell's article had quotes from angry fans, Scottish film-maker Murray Grigor and Hannah McGill, former director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The Daily Mail Reporter article includes all the same quotes, in exactly the same order.

There are other similarities. From the Scotsman:

The comic's Belgian creator, Georges Prosper Remi, known as Hergé, named Haddock while at dinner with his wife. "What is that?" he asked, when seeing haddock on the menu. "A sad English fish," she replied.

And the Mail:

The comic’s Belgian creator, Georges Prosper Remi, known as Herge, named Haddock while at dinner with his wife.

‘What is that?’ he asked, when seeing haddock on the menu.

‘A sad English fish,’ she replied.

From Cornwell:

The trailer features the moment when the drunken Captain Haddock starts a fire in a rowboat. "What are you doing?" Tintin asks. "I lit a wee fire," he replies. "In a boat?" Tintin screams.

One viewer referred caustically to Serkis's Scottish accent as "somewhere between Christopher Lambert's in Highlander and Robin Williams's in Mrs Doubtfire" - Scottish accents voiced by a Frenchman and an American comedian.

And from Daily Mail Reporter:

The trailer features the moment when the drunken Captain Haddock starts a fire in a rowboat. Tintin asks: ‘What are you doing?’, to which Haddock replies: ‘I lit a wee fire’. ‘In a boat?’ Tintin screams.

One viewer referred to Serkis’ Scottish accent as ‘somewhere between Christopher Lambert’s in Highlander and Robin Williams’s in Mrs Doubtfire’ - Scottish accents voiced by a Frenchman and an American comedian.

But there are other bits of background information about Tintin and Haddock in the Daily Mail Reporter's article that aren't in Cornwell's story. For example:

There was a real 20th-century ship’s master bearing the surname - Captain Herbert Haddock was skipper of the famous White Star Line’s passenger vessel Olympic, and had also been temporarily at the helm of its sister ship, Titanic, before it was officially handed over to White Star for her doomed 1912 maiden voyage with passengers.

Compare that paragraph with this one from the Captain Haddock Wikipedia page, which was last updated two days before the Mail article appeared:

There was, however a real 20th-century ship's master bearing this unlikely but appropriate surname: Captain (Herbert) Haddock had been the skipper of the famous White Star Line's passenger vessel Olympic. He had also been temporarily at the helm of Olympic's even more famous sister ship, Titanic, before Titanic was officially handed over to White Star for her doomed 1912 maiden voyage with passengers.

There's more. Daily Mail Reporter:

Captain Haddock was introduced to the Tintin books in The Crab with the Golden Claws.

Haddock was first introduced as the rum-loving captain of the Karaboudjan, a merchant vessel used, without Haddock’s knowledge, by his first mate Allan Thompson for smuggling drugs inside crab tins.

Wikipedia:

Captain Haddock was introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws....

Haddock was first introduced as the rum-loving captain of the Karaboudjan, a merchant vessel used—without Haddock's knowledge—by his first mate Allan Thompson for smuggling drugs inside crab tins.

Daily Mail Reporter:

But his most noble act is in Tintin in Tibet, in which he stoically volunteers to sacrifice his life to save Tintin.

Although when introduced Haddock has command of a freighter, in later volumes he is clearly retired.

The Captain’s coarse humanity and sarcasm act as a counterpoint to Tintin’s often implausible heroism; he is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter gets too idealistic.

Wikipedia:

his most noble act being in the pivotal Tintin in Tibet, in which he stoically volunteers to sacrifice his life to save Tintin. Although when introduced Haddock has command of a freighter, in later volumes he is clearly retired.

The Captain's coarse humanity and sarcasm act as a counterpoint to Tintin's often implausible heroism; he is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter gets too idealistic.

Daily Mail Reporter:

By the time of their last completed and published adventure, Tintin and the Picaros, Haddock had become such an important figure that he dominates much of the first half of the story.

He is especially notable in The Red Sea Sharks, where his skilful captaining of the ship he and Tintin seize from Rastapopoulos allows them to survive until they are rescued.

Wikipedia:

By the time of their last completed and published adventure, Tintin and the Picaros, Haddock had become such an important figure that he dominates much of the first half of the story. He is especially notable in The Red Sea Sharks, where his skilful captaining of the ship he and Tintin seize from Rastapopoulos allows them to survive until they are rescued.

Daily Mail Reporter:

In addition to his many insults, the most famous of Haddock’s expressions include permutations of two phrases: ‘Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles!’ and ‘Ten thousand thundering typhoons!’

Wikipedia:

In addition to his many insults, the most famous of Haddock's expressions relate to any of a number of permutations of two phrases: "Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles!" ("Mille millions de mille milliards de mille sabords!") and "Ten thousand thundering typhoons!" ("Tonnerre de Brest!").

Given this shameless copy-and-paste job, is it any wonder the person responsible decided to hide behind the 'Daily Mail Reporter' byline?

(Hat-tip to Steffan)

Transforming old quotes into a 'new' feature

The centre page spread in Wednesday's Daily Star was a feature on model-turned-'actress' Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley. It ran under the byline Nadine Linge and was illustrated by three pictures of Rosie in her underwear.

It appears to be a short interview - the text is dotted with comments such as 'jokes Rosie' and 'Rosie laughs' before and after quotes.

But it seems clear Linge hasn't actually interviewed Rosie at all.

Linge writes:

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley admits she’s infatuated with the [Prince Harry], even though she’s been loved-up with actor Jason Statham for over a year.

“I’m waiting for my proposal,” jokes Rosie.

“I keep writing. I think he knows how obsessed I am. Well, he does now!

“He’s so handsome. Come on Harry!”

But these words that will be familiar to anyone who saw the Mail's article on an interview Rosie did with Regis and Kelly in the US:

The 24-year-old Victoria's Secret beauty said she was infatuated with the Royal and gushed: 'I'm waiting for my proposal. I keep writing. 'I think he knows how obsessed I am. Well, he does now. He's so handsome.'

And she said she could picture herself walking down the aisle with the prince, urging: 'Come on Harry!'

Linge writes later:

The Plymouth-born beauty laughs: “When I was filming I couldn’t come back to Britain due to visa issues and I really missed my family big time. Luckily my mum sends me little care packages of chocolate, Walkers crisps and anything British.

“I love eating really, really bad things like roast dinners and chocolate bread and butter pudding. I find it strange some people say English food is bad. To me it’s delicious.”

Some of those words will be familiar to anyone who saw the Mail's article on an interview Rosie did with Maxim magazine:

“I love eating really, really bad things like roast dinners and chocolate bread and butter pudding. I find it strange some people say English food is bad. To me it’s delicious.”

Linge continues:

She’d love to become the new Angelina Jolie. And with Rosie’s equally fab figure and pouting lips, the Tomb Raider star had better watch her back.

“Would I like even a sniff of Angelina Jolie’s career?” says Rosie. “Yes. Do I think I have a future in this business? I hope so. And I’ll work damn hard to ensure I do.

“I’m not standing here and saying I’m an amazing actress or I’ve had a heap of training. But I don’t think I ever even dreamt this would be a possibility.”

Clearly, someone at the Star has a copy of the July 2011 edition of GQ, where Rosie says:

‘Would I like even a sniff of Angelina Jolie’s career? Yes. Do I think I have a future in this business? I certainly hope so. And I’m going to work damn hard to make sure I do,’ she said.

Adding: ‘I’m not standing here and saying I’m an amazing actress or that I’ve had a heap of thespie training. But you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.’

None of these sources are credited anywhere in the feature.

This comes soon after Jerry Lawton appears to have pulled quotes by Manchester United club chaplain John Boyers from other sources without credit, including an interview in the United We Stand fanzine.

Currently, there is much debate about interviews that have appeared under Johann Hari's byline in the Independent. Hari has, quite rightly, been criticised for using, without acknowledgement, quotes that were actually published elsewhere and which were not said during his conversations with his interviewees.

Although the Star does not explicitly say this is a new interview, the references to her laughing and joking clearly conveys this impression. Will the reaction be the same? Or will people shrug and say: 'Well, it's only the Daily Star'.

Mail caught copying old stories from BBC website (again)

Quotes from a Close Friend is a new 'media watching' blog which began last month and aims to highlight bad journalism and, in particular, celebrity gossip, political news and other stories which are based on the words of 'close friends' and anonymous sources.

The first post on the blog highlighted this Mail story from 10 March:


Why this story?

Because only the day before, I had read this old BBC story from 2003, which reappeared briefly in the ‘most popular: shared’ box on the front page of the BBC News website. It described a paper by a Dr Fox (sadly not the DJ or politician) – published in a medical journal – which recorded the various acronyms used by doctors to covertly describe their patient.

And as Quotes from a Close Friend points out, it's not just the same story, but it includes several rather familar sentences:

From the BBC:

Thus rheumatology, considered by hard-pressed juniors one of the less busy specialties, becomes “rheumaholiday”, the “Freud Squad” are psychiatrists, and “Gassers” and “Slashers” are anaesthetists and general surgeons respectively.

And from the Mail:

For example rheumatology, considered to be one of the less busy specialties, is ‘rheumaholiday’, the ‘Freud Squad’ are psychiatrists, ‘Gassers’ are anaesthetists and ‘slashers’ general surgeons.

They add:

To be fair to the Mail (what?), they might just have stumbled across the same journal the original BBC article came from, albeit 8 years later. However, the big problem with that theory is this not-in-any-way-lifted quote about the acronym TTFO (Told to f*** off);

From the BBC:

He told BBC News Online: ‘This guy was asked by the judge what the acronym meant, and luckily for him he had the presence of mind to say: ‘To take fluids orally’.”

And the Mail:

He said: ‘This guy was asked by the judge what the acronym meant, and luckily for him he had the presence of mind to say: ‘To take fluids orally’.’

So, perhaps the Mail came up with this story on their own, and phoned up Dr Fox, who gave word-for-word the same quote as eight years ago. Or, perhaps they’ve seen an eight-year-old story on the BBC website, rearranged some of the paragraphs, changed some of the words, and added a few extra examples. Answers on a postcard.

The answer is, of course, obvious.

After all, the Mail's been caught re-heating old stories from the BBC website's 'most popular' box at least twice before - once with a story about the removal of clips from YouTube, and once with an article involving wrongly-translated Welsh road signs.

Incidentally, the Mail website recently won the award for Digital Innovation of the Year at the Press Awards for demonstrating:

ingenuity and innovation in the use of multi-media applications and content.

'Shamelessly ripped off'

The latest issue of SF Weekly - a publication based in San Francisco - has a cover story about how 'illegal immigrants find that being a crime victim is their best ticket to citizenship' thanks to something called the 'U-visa'.

That article, written by Lauren Smiley, was published on 16 March.

Four days later, the Daily Mail ran an article headlined 'The 'crime visa': How 18,000 illegal immigrants got legal status by being the victim of a crime' which was 'written' by their Daily Mail Reporter.

And Smiley and the SF Weekly are not amused by the Mail's effort:

This was actually our cover article on U visas, shamelessly ripped off and plastered on the website of the wildly successful British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail.

This is an example of "churnalism" at its most depraved -- the story's byline reads only "Daily Mail Reporter," as if the anonymous hack couldn't bear to fess up to his or her lack of originality. The article proceeds to rephrase our sentences, lift our quotes verbatim, and even write snappy sidebars about the visa-seeking San Francisco-based immigrants -- Rosa Aguilar and Adolfo Lopez, you've gone international! -- profiled in our original story.

Check out our story versus theirs for yourself: There is absolutely no original reporting in the entire Daily Mail piece. Apparently the reporter thought he or she was absolved via a quick "SFWeekly.com reports" in the 18th paragraph. No link or anything. Wow, thanks.

Smiley then highlights a couple of other cases of Mail articles that look suspiciously like articles from other publications, before concluding:

It seems U visas are a topic that appealed to the paper's conservative, anti-immigrant editorial stance; the Mail's editors have been called to answer in the past by the British Parliament's human rights committee about critical coverage of asylum seekers...

C'mon, guys: All we're asking for is some link love and heavy attribution high up in the story. Then go ahead and take what you want. To borrow a British expression, what the Mail did -- it's just not cricket.

(Big hat-tip to Malcolm Armsteen at the Mailwatch Forum)

Update on Daily Mail plagiarism

The Cutline has revealed a few more details about the claim that the Daily Mail plagiarised an article from the New York Times last week.

Joe Pompeo reports:

By Friday morning Eastern time, the Daily Mail had removed the byline of reporter Liz Thomas from the piece, which itself had been edited and cut down significantly from its original form sans the lifted Times text.

But Thomas told The Cutline via email: "This has nothing to do with me. I did not write the piece at all. I am away on holiday."

So what happened here?

"I can tell you that an inquiry is underway to discover how this happened and [we will] deal with the matter appropriately," said Charles Garside, assistant editor at the Daily Mail, who noted that the following erratum was being appended to the piece: "An earlier version of this article was mistakenly attributed to the writer Liz Thomas. We also regret that a revised version of the article also failed to attribute the source to the New York Times."

(Many thanks to Minority Thought for the tip)

Mail accused of plagiarism (again)

'Somebody call the Plagiarism Police on the Daily Mail!' says Jim Romenesko of Poynter, pointing out the 'many' similarities between a Mail article and an earlier story in the New York Times.

Here's one passage, outlined by Romenesko, from the NYT:

Many of these devices transmit a signal, and all of them emit electromagnetic waves, which, in theory, could interfere with the plane’s electronics. At the same time, older planes might not have the best shielding against the latest generation of devices, some engineers said.

And here's how it appeared, under Liz Thomas' byline, in the Mail:

Most personal devices transmit a signal and all of them emit electromagnetic waves which, in theory, could interfere with the plane’s electronics. At the same time, older planes might not have the best protection against the latest generation of devices.

There's more. NYT:

Safety experts suspect that electronic interference has played a role in some accidents, though that is difficult to prove. One crash in which cellphone interference with airplane navigation was cited as a possible factor involved a charter in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2003. Eight people died when the plane flew into the ground short of the runway.

The pilot had called home, and the call remained connected for the last three minutes of the flight. In the final report, the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission stated, “The pilot’s own cellphone might have caused erroneous indications” on a navigational aid.

Mail:

Safety experts suspect that electronic interference has played a role in some accidents, although it is difficult to prove.

One crash in which mobile phone interference with a plane's navigation was cited as a possible factor involved a 2003 flight in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Eight people died when the plane flew into the ground short of the runway.

The pilot had phoned home, and the call remained connected for the last three minutes of the flight.

In the final report, the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission stated, 'The pilot’s own cellphone might have caused erroneous indications' on a navigational aid.

NYT:

Since 2000, there have been at least 10 voluntary reports filed by pilots in the United States with the Aviation Safety Reporting System, administered by NASA. In 2007, one pilot recounted an instance when the navigational equipment on his Boeing 737 had failed after takeoff. A flight attendant told a passenger to turn off a hand-held GPS device and the problem on the flight deck went away.

Mail:

Since 2000, there have been at least 10 voluntary reports filed by pilots in the U.S. with the Aviation Safety Reporting System, administered by NASA.

In 2007, one pilot recounted an instance when the navigational equipment on his Boeing 737 had failed after takeoff.

A flight attendant told a passenger to turn off a hand-held GPS device and the problem on the flight deck went away.

NYT:

At American Airlines, people dialed cellphones from out-of-service planes parked at various airports. “They found no interaction with the aircraft instruments on any aircraft type,” said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American.

As a result, the airline like most others, decided to permit the use of phones at the gate before departure and after landing.

Mail:

At American Airlines, people dialed cellphones from out-of-service planes parked at various airports.

'They found no interaction with the aircraft instruments on any aircraft type,' said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines.

As a result the airline, like most others, decided to allow permit the use of phones at the gate before departure and after landing.

The use of 'dialed' and 'cellphones' in the latter section certainly imply a strong American influence.

And it's not as if this is the first time that questions have been raised about the Mail's 'coincidental overlaps' with other material.

(Hat-tip to Kevin Marsh)

'Flattery'

Gaming website Kotaku has claimed that a Daily Mail story by Allan Hall has 'flattering' similarities to two of their articles.

Brian Crecente writes:

You can't imagine how flattered we were today to discover that the Daily Mail doesn't just read our little gaming site, they even like to sometimes "repurpose" our news.

Take for instance their story this evening headlined: Jewish groups slam violent 'blast-the-Nazis' Auschwitz uprising video game.

Under the tantalizing headline we found a surprisingly familiar group of quotes. Quotes from interviews we conducted with the Anti-Defamation League, interviews with the Simon Wiesenthal Center (though they spelled their center with a fancy misplaced R) and quotes from the game's developer saying things he says he didn't share with anyone else.

The Kotaku articles appeared on the 10th and 11th, the Mail's on the 16th.

Here's a few 'similar' passages. Kotaku:

Sonderkommando Revolt project lead Maxim "Doomjedi" Genis says his team of artists, coders and writers is simply trying to make an action game only for the challenge, for the fun, to entertain.

Mail:

Maxim Genis, the brains behind the game, says his team of artists, coders and writers is simply trying to make 'an action game only for the challenge, for the fun, to entertain...'

Kokatu:

Genis wrote via e-mail that he was partly inspired to create Sonderkommando Revolt based on his spiritual convictions. The game maker believes that, in a previous incarnation of his life, he was imprisoned as a Jew by the Nazis, served as a Sonderkommando in a concentration camp and died before the events of 1944 that prompted the creation of the mod.

Mail:

Genis wrote via e-mail that he was partly inspired to create Sonderkommando Revolt based on his spiritual convictions. The game maker believes that, in a previous incarnation of his life, he was imprisoned as a Jew by the Nazis, served as a Sonderkommando in a concentration camp and died before the events of 1944.

It is especially poor practice for the Mail to say that Genis wrote 'via e-mail' and then fail to name who that email was written to - or pretend it was written to them.

In related news, the Press Gazette is reporting that the Daily Mail is being sued for $1m in the US over copyright:

Mavrix Photo, a company based in Florida but with offices in Los Angeles, is seeking damages over the use of ten sets of images of celebrities it says the Mail published online and in print without the appropriate authority.

The agency, though Californian legal firm One LLP, filed papers last month at the Central District Court of California in Los Angeles claiming that it offered pictures of actress Kate Hudson in a bikini by a pool to the Mail for use in print only upon payment of a fee.

Despite "prominent warnings" the Mail used the pictures of Hudson without prior payment or authorisation both in print and online, the court papers suggest.

In addition to the Hudson images, the court papers claim the Mail repeatedly used its Mavrix images without prior consent and then would occasionally send "a check [sic] for a trivial, insubstantial sum of money which was never agreed upon as the appropriate fee".

The article continues:

The court papers accuse the Mail of having a history of copyright infringements, saying: "The pattern and practice of the defendant is to ignore the demand of photo agencies or photographers to agree rates before use and to simply take the pictures and use them without compensation or to then offer token compensation."

This 'history' is highlighted in several articles from the British Journal of Photography and at the Russian Photos Blog.

The Press Gazette says Mavrix:

...is seeking statutory damages of $150,000 (£96,195) per infringement, legal costs and a declaration from the court preventing further unauthorised use.

The Daily Mail has yet to respond to a request for comment.

'Coincidental overlaps'

The Skimmer is suspicious of a Daily Mail article that has 'coincidental overlaps' with an earlier piece by the Spectator's Ed Howker:

We at The Spectator have no doubt that the Daily Mail reporter did actually visit Rochdale. It's just that her material looks as if it could have been copied from Ed's Coffee House post.

For example:

Coffee House: "The streets are litterless ... the only things blooming on the estate are the flower boxes."
Mail: "The streets of Lower Falinge estate ... no litter on the pavements and window boxes bloomed outside."

Coffee House: "The other major retailer is a betting shop. A local cafe offers a £4.70 breakfast that includes a can of Stella."
Mail: "Of the shops and pubs that aren't boarded up the one attracting the most custom yesterday was the bookmakers, while the cafe offers a £4.70 breakfast that includes a can of Stella."

Mail caught out (again) copying year -old story from BBC

Yesterday afternoon, this article appeared on the Daily Mail website:


It was odd timing because this actually happened in May 2009. So why was the Mail running it now?

Martin Robbins explains:

On May 21st 2009, an article was posted on the BBC about an attack on the file-sharing site Youtube...

For some reason, this old article became one of the “Most Read” items on the BBC website [yesterday]...

Then, in a bizarre coincidence blatant piece of plagiarism, the Daily Mail ran the exact same story (mirror) from May 2009, lifting text and quotes straight from the BBC article.

He then shows how closely 'Daily Mail Reporter' copied-and-pasted the BBC article, making only the most basic attempts at changing a few words here and there.

Martin adds:

The Daily Mail waste no opportunity to take a dig at the BBC, and yet apparently they find their content good enough to repost at DailyMail.co.uk, even when it’s more than a year out of date (H/T to @jaffathecake)...

Almost inevitably, the Mail article now seems to have been taken down, with no question of acknowledging the ‘mistake’...

What I do find disgusting is that an organ that constantly harps on about the integrity of others – including notably the BBC – doesn’t have the honesty or decency to own up to the fact that this even happened. Instead, its editors prefer to rewrite history in the hope that noone will ever notice.

Moreover, it's not the first time the Mail has been caught out in this way. A BBC article from October 2008 about Welsh road signs suddenly appeared on the Mail website in March this year after making the BBC's 'Most read' list.

In July, Mail editor Paul Dacre said:

Britain's newspapers are infinitely better behaved than they were two decades ago. Yes, the industry can do more to improve standards. We will rise to our challenge.

When?

(Hat-tips to Lindsay and Graeme for emailing about the Mail's YouTube article, and for the screenshot)

Is the Mail now plagiarising user comments from IMDB?

Remember Mail Online hack Chris Johnson, who wrote an article about Dick Van Dyke's appearance at an LA stage production of Mary Poppins, which had suspicious similarities to an article from an American website?

Today, he's been given the task of writing an article about Alice Eve, who appeared at the premiere of her new film She's Out of My League in a:

low-cut pink dress to show off the figure that wins her so many admirers in the movie

The headline refers to her:

her leading lady attributes.

Yes, really.

But then there's Johnson's synopsis of the film's plot:

In the film Alice plays Molly, a beautiful events planner who has a chance encounter with geeky airport security guard Kirk (Baruchel).

Kirk is smitten by Molly, but his friends point out to him that he doesn't have a chance, because he is only rated as a '5' and Molly is definitely a '10'.

However, Molly has something else in mind, because she has found that Kirk is sweet, amusing, honest, and different from the men she has been dating.

Googling the second of those sentences and the very same words pop up somewhere else - in a review on IMDB by the-movie-guy:

Molly (Alice Eve) is a sexy event planner who is delayed by a sleazy airport security guard. Another security guard, Kirk (Jay Baruchel) comes to her rescue, and passes her through to catch her plane...

Kirk is smitten by Molly, but his friends point out to him that he doesn't have a chance, because he is only rated as a "5" and Molly is definitely a "10"...

However, Molly has something else in mind, because she has found that Kirk is sweet, amusing, honest, and different from the men she has been dating.

That means there are now four Mail articles which appear to have more than a hint of plagiarism about them.

When will anyone bring them to account?

More claims of plagiarism against the Mail

The constant media hounding of Jonathan Ross eventually led to him quitting the BBC. Having claimed his scalp, they're now going after his wife for her involvement in the upcoming action film Kick-Ass.

The Sunday Times began this piffle with Jon Ungoed-Thomas' ill-informed article Jonathan Ross's wife Jane Goldman spawns girl assassin, 11. Unsurprisingly, the Mail were quick to join in the attack, with the suspiciously similar Jonathan Ross's wife Jane Goldman causes outrage with film featuring a foul-mouthed 11-year-old assassin, which they placed very prominently on their website.

Two things need to be pointed out immediately.

One: Goldman is only a co-writer of the screenplay. The other co-writer, Matthew Vaughn, is also the film's director - yet he is hardly mentioned in either story.

Two: the film is based on a comic book by Mark Millar. He invented the character of Hit-Girl, the foul-mouthed, eleven-year-old assassin, but the Mail doesn't even bother to mention him.

So references to 'Goldman's film' and her 'spawning' the character aren't exactly accurate.

As for the so-called 'outrage', it's as mythical as you might expect. The New York Times published an article about the film's red band trailers (ones that have swearing and violence in), based on the concerns of one person, who writes her reviews under the title Movie Mom.

Both articles quote Frank Furedi, a professor of sociology at Kent University, but he seems to be making a generic point about about movie violence and doesn't mention Goldman at all.

So a bit of manufactured outrage used to attack another member of the Ross family. What a surprise.

But on reading the Mail's version, the resemblance to the Sunday Times' article is too strong to be coincidental. As the Mail article says Furedi 'told the Sunday Times' his view, it's reasonable to assume the broadsheet article must have existed first.

Sunday Times:

Mail:

Sunday Times:
Mail:

Sunday Times:

Mail (with spelling mistake):

Sunday Times:
Mail:

Sunday Times:
Mail:

Sunday Times:
Mail:

It doesn't look good, does it?

And this isn't the first time a Mail article has looked suspiciously similar to another story from another paper.

On an earlier post about yet another claim of plagiarism against the Mail, an anonymous comment pointed out these two articles:

Exhibit A - AC Transit bus brawler has video past by Angela Woodall in The Oakland Tribune.

Exhibit B - Bus assault pensioner, 67, starred in second YouTube altercation last August... when he was Tasered by police published on MailOnline.

I emailed Woodall about the claim. She said they had used her work without attribution and confirmed that she had written an email to the Mail about their 'strikingly similar' story, but which they had ignored. She also sent me a copy of her email to them.

Here's a section from Woodall's article:


And from the Mail's version:



And with these articles following on from the claims made against the Mail's Chris Johnson for plagiarism, is anyone going to call the Mail and its editor, to account?

Breaking news from the Mail: someone's buying quiche

The Mail's other Tesco story of last week was even more insubstantial than the ones about pyjamas.

For around five hours on Tuesday afternoon, this was the top news story on the Mail's website:


And then it was relegated to second place for a few more hours.

The Mail actually thought a story about a woman trying to buy quiche was the most important thing going on in the world.

The story is this: 24-year-old Christine Cuddihy had tried to buy a piece of quiche from Tesco and was asked for ID. Thrilling, huh?

Cuddihy was embarrassed but produced some ID and got her quiche. A Tesco spokesman said:

'We're at a loss to say what happened here. We couldn't find the staff member who asked for the ID. Age-related prompts at till are set centrally and there obviously isn't one on quiche.'

So, assuming it did happen - and given the story and the Tesco statement, that isn't certain - it's an isolated incident. A cock-up. A till bleeping at the wrong time. An overly officious member of staff. A funny (ish) story to tell your friends. That's about it.

Of course, for the Mail (and the readers who leave comments) this all represented the latest example of political correctness gone mad. You can't even buy quiche any more! It's the end of civilisation as we know it.

Errr, no, it's probably just a one-off.

Inevitably, Littlejohn had to mention it in his column on Friday, but only so he could make this 'joke' (although it is being exceptionally generous to describe it as one):

Are you over 21, madam? Give us a quiche and I'll tell you.

No wonder he gets paid so much...

What's curious about this whole incident is how it came to dominate the Mail's website for so much of Tuesday.

The story was first published - like so many national stories - in the local press. The Leamington Observer ran it on 1 February, in an article written by the Deputy Editor Kevin Unitt. He told Hold the Front Page:

I knew it was a good story, and hoped it would be picked up by the national press, but none seemed particularly interested at first.

The Sun ran just three lines on it on page 25 last week and the Daily Mail rejected it altogether because The Sun had already covered it, a bizarre decision given they would lead their own website with the story just a few days later.

Bizarre indeed. So what happened?

A press agency...tracked down the woman involved, slightly re-packaged the story, and sold it on to their national newspaper contacts.

On Tuesday, almost a week after we'd ran the piece, the Daily Mail finally screamed it from their website.

And then, Unitt makes a comment about the Mail's agenda:

Some treated it for what it was – a funny story...

But others began to de-construct and take the fun out, blaming it on everything from New Labour and the 'PC Brigade' to big corporations mentally preparing us for the introduction of national identity cards.

The Mail taking 'the fun out' of something. Imagine that?

Finally, Unitt explains the regrets of the woman involved:

Christine, who has had to change her name on internet social networking sites due to random friend requests and seedy messages, says she'd now be quite happy for the quiche incident to be forgotten.

She told the Observer: 'I really want all this to stop now. It's quite scary when you read all the comments about you. It was supposed to just be a funny story!'

OK, she went to the press in the first place, but it's unfortunate that it spun out of control in this way.

It's not clear what prompted the Mail's extraordinary change of heart. Not interested one day, top story a week later. Fun story one day, 'PC gone mad' outrage a week later.

It's common sense, gone mad.

One final note about the Mail's coverage. After claims that Mail journalists may have been caught plagiarising the LA Times, this part of their article:

did seem suspiciously similar to this from the Leamington Observer's original:


(And, an anonymous comment on this blog pointed out another case involving the Mail, from 2002, which apparently led an employee of the Mail to say 'But there isn't any rule against copying stuff off a website, is there?')