Seven accuses Nine of theft over Today Tonight lift
The Seven Network is threatening legal action after Nine’s A Current Affair rebroadcast most of a segment from Today Tonight minutes after it had aired.
Last night’s incident – involving an interview with one of two boys at the centre of a much debated video of a schoolyard fight – marks the most extreme example yet of the rival shows lifting content from each other.
A Current Affair carried around five minutes of Today Tonight’s eight minute report.
This afternoon, Seven issued a statement from Today Tonight’s executive producer Craig McPherson saying:
“You would have to be delusional to suggest what ACA did on Monday night is acceptable. There are times when both programs, the 6pm news even newspapers lift and use images from other outlets on certain stories. Day to day media is very robust and immediate.
“To actually lift, lock stock and barrel a report from your rival outlet is unprecedented. Let’s put this into context. This is not lifting images, this is journalistic theft. ACA lifted James Thomas’ report. From start to finish it was TT’s James Thomas’ script, voice over, interview, cut aways..the whole report dropped into their rundown 10 minutes after they recorded it off air and ran it as their own.
“It would be like the Daily Telegraph re running a report, verbatim from its rival on the same day.
“We all work under pressure. As do most of the workforce. But to have a brain explosion like that cannot be dismissed with arrogant, smug rhetoric.
”Channel 7 will be pursuing this to the full letter of the law. ACA created TV history on Monday night for all the wrong reasons.”
A Current Affair has in recent weeks taken potshots at Today Tonight for lifting shot sequences of video – even when heavily watermarked. In February, the network even created a fake apology to viewers.
The point of copyright law at issue is likely to be that of “fair dealing”, which allows news outlets to carry elements of somebody else’s content for the pruposes of telling a wider story. In general though, this has to be a small proportion of a much larger piece.
On Sunday night, Today Tonight carried elements from A Current Affair’s coverage of the same story.
Nobody from Nine was immediately available for comment. The Telegraph reported a spokesman from Nine as saying: “It’s more than a bit rich for TT to start whining about lack of attribution when they have long been repeat and serial offenders on the use of others’ – mostly ACA , of course – material.”
In the battle for ratings, Seven won the fight last night. Today Tonight pulled in 1.447m viewers to Nine’s 1.205m.
4.40pm update: A spokesman for Nine told Mumbrella:
“An unctuous Churchillian lecture on journalistic ethics from the EP of Today Tonight. Now we’ve seen it all . This from the same honest broker who at 6.30pm last – 25 minutes before ACA’s alleged offence – actually led his own program with great slabs of the ACA bully interview – all totally unattributed .As he and his program have routinely done literally scores of times previously.
“The hypocrisy is towering and transparent . Today Tonight confecting outrage about non-attribution of any story is very much like Jack the Ripper complaining about an increase in knife-related crime.
“They can have their day in court if they desperately want it . But only if they want to be publicly buried under a truckload of cases of their own un-attributed use of others’ material over the past two decades”
A new low is reached, although impressive they turned it around that quick!
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I doubt it was a ‘brain explosion’, more like the fight to get ridiculous drivel to prime time television goes wrong. Epic fail, ACA.
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I don’t *really* care what they get up to, but I do think it’s interesting that the screenshot clearly shows that nine got the footage free of TT (or any) watermarks – they didn’t just record it off-air, they had a much more direct source, which I could only speculate at.
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Both as bad as each other – watching both shows is almost akin to watching the same program some nights. They’re like two spoilt little brats fighting over a toy.
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ACA trying to make a point, or pot calling the kettle black? All this and dodgy Muslim electricians robbing your gran, tonight on A Bennett Affair.
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Scratch my last comment – the watermarks have just been blurred out, which clearly visible on the TV Tonight story the pix came from (which I had to google as you didn’t link)
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People still watch television?
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But who are these 2.6 million Australians silly enough to be watching in the first place?
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Why don’t you boys go out and settle this in the playground.
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My only wish is that Working Dog are hard at work on a new series of Frontline…
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Hey, I’m a lazy slacker with no ethics and very few ideas of my own. I’m always willing to sink to the level of the worst people in my industry and I promise never to apologise if I get caught out. How can I get a job on A Current Affair or Today Tonight?
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Two bullies arguing about a story about bullies. What else can you expect?
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@Adam Paull – oh how I wish that were true
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+1 @Adam Paull – Rob, Santo et al, please read this
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Considering just how far down the chute tabloid TV has gone since Frontline finished up, the episodes will practically write themselves – the team’s ideas must be overflowing!
I can’t see how its possible that Rob Sitch can wake up every morning without having a finished script on his bedside table.
The hardest part will be finding a Hi8 camera to shoot it on…
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@Adam Paull – are you saying ACA and TT aren’t by Working Dog?
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I’m not apologising, he started it – come on guys how about we grow up, and get back to the hard hitting journalism about which type of butter is trying to hurt your family
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It would be the joke to end all jokes if the last 10 years of ACA/TT was a carefully scripted parody, but alas…
Besides, if it was the BBC would have ripped it off by now.
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