Journalist criticises Mamamia and Mail over lifting of investigative article into child abuse
A freelance journalist who worked for weeks on a major investigation into child abuse, only to see the substance of the article almost immediately lifted by other websites including the Daily Mail and Mamamia, has written an impassioned post warning that the practice is damaging the future of quality journalism.
Over the weekend, News Corp’s website news.com.au posted the lengthy piece from former ABC reporter Ginger Gorman. It covered the topic of childhood sexual abuse involving mothers.
Gorman’s original article for News Corp
However, within a few hours, other sites had begun to repost most of the quotes and key information from the story.
Why is #journalism dying? b/c @DailyMailAU rips of months of investigative work every time a freelancer like me publishes a story. Leeches! pic.twitter.com/Zn6dOyp4CI
— Ginger Gorman (@GingerGorman) January 15, 2017
Using her own Facebook page, Gorman has gone public with the letter she wrote to Mamamia’s head of news Gemma Garkut and producer Katy Hall. She said she also sent a similar one to the Daily Mail.
A cached version of the Mamamia article, now deleted
After Gorman wrote to Mamamia, the site eventually took the article down. According to Gorman: “Mamamia first edited their version of my article from 900 words to 500. And they took Katy Hall’s byline off it. They then removed the post altogether.”
Gorman: “I wonder how quality journalism will survive” | Pic: Twitter (With permission)
In the note to Mamamia, Gorman wrote:
After being made redundant from the ABC two years ago, I’ve worked incredibly hard to build a freelancing business on my own. My work is high profile but takes many hours of investigative work. I don’t make a lot of money from it; I do it because I believe in it. I want society to be a fairer, more just place to live.
You’d be aware that on the weekend, I published (the) story:
It was the result of hours and hours of work over a number of weeks. And quite a few tears too – because the content is so traumatic. I worked incredibly hard to treat my interviewees with respect.
And in fact, I had to get trauma support myself to deal with the fall out and continue with the story.
Mamamia then published this ripped off version not long after I published my original story:
I’m devastated about this. It’s incredibly hurtful to think Katy probably only spent an hour at most cutting and pasting my story and then putting her own byline online.
You didn’t even acknowledge the source – you didn’t name me or news.com.au in your “story.”
And what about the dignity and trust of the men who I had interviewed and worked so long and hard to protect?
I wonder if have considered what this kind of ‘journalism’ costs society? How will stories like the ones I write actually get told if interviewees can’t trust journalists and decide not to speak out? How will power be held to account?
It also costs me personal distress to see this close-to-the-bone story re-written in this way.
Furthermore – and least important (but not irrelevant) – it costs me income.
Mamamia is well known for stating it is a feminist organisation.
In this light, how can you take my work without paying me for it?
In order for me to continue work like this, I have to pay my mortgage and feed my family. Because my work keeps getting ripped off, it’s becoming impossible.
I’m idealistic and I wonder how quality journalism will survive this terrible practice of taking other people’s work? It does have a consequence.
Honestly. You can’t imagine how shattered I am today.
Meanwhile the Daily Mail version of the article is still online. While it includes a link to the Gorman’s original piece on the News Corp site, it wrongly cites the work as being that of Fairfax Media.
In the Facebook post, Gorman said: “I’m hopeful all this discussion may lead to changes in the industry and perhaps end the practice of journalists ripping off other journalists.”
Mumbrella invited the Daily Mail and Mamamia to comment, but at the time of posting, neither had responded.
The issue has been much talked about over the last three years, with fingers often pointed by News Corp at the Daily Mail.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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No one has any respect for journalism. The media is a disgrace. I’m sorry this happened, Ginger, but I’m hardly surprised. Mamamia is viewed with contempt by every woman I know. I’m always shocked when they claim to have so many readers.
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Shame on you mamma Mia, daily mail and anyone else in the media who thinks this practice is acceptable. Do your own digging. Much more rewarding I would’ve thought.
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It’s called reporting the news. Yes stories are rewritten and commercialised but News Corp has made a business model out of it. Apparently when the ABC or Guardian does it it’s OK but if anyone else does it’s ripping off freelancers. If the 6pm news never used stories from newspapers their bulletins would be about 10 minutes long (discounting foreign providers). It’s a reality of journalism in 2017. Yes it’s sad and yes it sucks. But either evolve to the commercial reality of news or look for a different income. We’d all love to sit in a room breaking stories that take weeks or months to prepare but the world has changed. For better or worse it’s the reality. Learn from it and move on
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Wish I had a dollar for every story of mine ripped off by other media over the years. Still, I earn a salary. Can’t imagine what a kick in the guts it must feel like for freelancers, like Ginger Gorman.
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While I think the act itself that caused this outcry is despicable and against the spirit of true journalism and mammamia and the daily mail should be ashamed, I still think that it’s a bit rich to publish something within the news Ltd media family and then talk about quality journalism and journalistic ethics.
Rupert Murdoch has done his absolute best to erode that over time with his outright lies for the sake of advancing his interests in politics, business and even sport.
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If anyone classifies the utter tripe published in both the Daily Fail and Dumber Mia then we have a problem Houston.
Erm, hmm; we have a problem Houston!
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So sorry to read this Ginger but I’m so glad you’ve taken the step to share your story. As a small biz owner that needs to write blogs to attract clients, I get annoyed if my content is cut and paste. In fact and ex client swiped all my packages off my site. She took it down after our phone call. I hope the UK paper does the same.
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There’s a vast difference between covering a story that’s been broken by someone else and lifting whole stories or sections of text verbatim. In the examples cited, the ‘journalists’ have made no attempt to add to the story, consult new sources or do any original research. They could have added to the story, could have found someone new to talk to. But they didn’t. This was blatant plagiarism.
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Dear ‘News’,
You don’t appear to know how news works. Yes other outlets pick up stories, but they can do it with acknowledgement. Learn from this and move on.
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Firstly, I am shocked that anyone thinks Mamma Mia is a news site. Secondly, welcome to world outside of a corporate structure. Governments are sacrificing individuals in order that donating corporations get payback.
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This is an arrogant and unprofessional response to what is theft of a professional’s integrity and intellectual property. I am not a journalist but I am appalled by your comments.
Instead of defending her right to work in whatever field she prefers you basically tell her to get over it, stop crying over spilt milk and if she doesn’t like it, move on.
It is personal attacks, bullying and comments like this which make others think it is OK to steal, lie and cheat at work as well as in life.
You are a disgrace.
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This is appalling. If publishers want content, then they should pay for it and acknowledge the journo. Simple.
Society needs quality journalism to keep exposing the truth, locking up criminals, instigating changes in social and political policies and offer the public the correct facts for them to make informed decisions. To do that, journos need to be paid for their stories whether they be freelance or with a news publisher.
Imagine the uproar if a man had lifted a content piece from Mammamia and called it his own work?
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What happened to Ginger is symptomatic of the way journalism has gone.
Not so long ago a journo who knocked off another’s work, without any acknowledgement, quickly gained a dodgy reputation and was ridiculed by his/her peers.
Ironic though that her story was published by News Corp, pacesetter in declining standards and ethics despite their “mahogany row” suits frequently espousing a commitment to “quality” journalism.
Numerous websites employ so-called journos to simply re-write whatever is published on opposing sites or overseas outlets.
It might be the way of the world these days … that does not make it acceptable or right.
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Yes TV news and even ABC radio follow up on newspaper articles but at least they have the decency to contact the people involved and do their own interviews. This gives the story subjects the ability to accept or decline having their story told on a wider stage. Many of these sites don’t even bother to contact the people in the stories, they just cut and paste, which in any other industry is called plagiarism.
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Spot on – massive difference!
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Journalism has been in a steady decline for years. As well as ripping off other people’s work without permissions or credit, there is little fact checking, or even spell checking done to articles on the majority of news channels.
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Mamamia, just pay. What’s wrong with you?
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Agencies can help with this:
Stop Funding Hate
https://www.facebook.com/stopfundinghate
Sad for Mamamia to be lumped in with Daily Mail #Shame!
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Why can’t you own the copyright over your own story and then if someone else picks it up, they should have to pay a fee (just as radio stations have to for playing a song) – that way the writer gets the royalty. There should also have to be an acknowledgement of where the story came from. I think “News” should be disgusted with themselves for their attitude.
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This happens ALL the time with photographs too!!! And it’s so wrong on so many levels. Photographers work incredibly hard to train and produce the work that we do and yet our photos often go viral without our consent, are cropped, watermarks taken out, sold to other media and rarely does it result in any benefits whatsoever for us. Just because it is public, doesn’t mean that it is a free for all. There are IP and copyright rules for a reason. Mamamia are one of the worst for this!!! I totally feel for you Ginger. Good on you for speaking out!
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I’m surprised that they were brave enough to publish this story in the first place. The narrative going around is that men are abusers and responsible for all the woes of the world. To publish a story where women are bad and report the truth is very brave in this day of radical femnazis
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Nice piece, sad story , hardly surprising. Journalism is one of the great and, I say, “fine” arts of the fourth estate, it strikes one mentally and emotionally when it is working, and it thumps one between the eyes when it is not. Digital media and the internet have crushed all but the last golden seam of the art, by providing a place where any hack “would be” writer is given a payment and published, regardless of style, content or syntax.
‘Man Bites Dog’ turns out to be an ad for hot dogs, ‘Tragedy Strikes HM The Queen’ turns out to be the death of a very old corgi. They used to rob Peter to pay Paul, now they rob anyone and everyone to fill the vast abyss of the electronic media.
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You are a deluded fool who sounds like they’ve been in the game for five minutes. But you wouldn’t last another five in a real newsroom, not that there are many of them anymore in the anything goes digital world. Yes, real journalists follow up original stories – but they don’t steal them by doing a dodgy five minute rewrite. That’s not journalism, it’s theft.
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Well said Richard. And the television commercials space is the same.
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Well done, Ginger – you are my hero today.
Here’s some advice – send them an invoice for using your work. That’s exactly what I did when a major magazine a few years ago lifted 90% of my story in another magazine and ran it as their own – as in, in their 13 paragraph story, 11 of the pars were lifted directly from my original story. I demanded – and I got – paid for their using my work. The MEAA backed me up, claiming it was clear and outright plagiarism. As indeed this practice is. So Ginger, send that invoice off today, as they are using your original work. Although good luck getting paid from Mamma Mia – does that place pay anyone these days?
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That’s true – the ABC requires information to be independently verified before running it
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I feel for hard-working Ginger but can report that blatant plagiarism has been a sad norm for the electronic media for years and the internet is unfortunately electronic. I once sat open-mouthed in my lounge room listening to the long-dead Canberra TV newsreader Peter Leonard read one of my Canberra Times stories out loud in his nightly bulletin, word for word, without the hint of an acknowledgement. I would have been flattered if I wasn’t so angry. It’s a pity they so rarely find news of their own that we can’t return the favour.
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Meri based on your comment it would appear that you don’t know that many women.
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Why have you not mentioned who the journalist at the Daily Mail is?and only singled out the one from Mumamai
Seems a little unfair when you did mention they both apparently didn’t give reference to the original author !
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Mamamia are targeted because they vlaim to have higher standards and stand up for women! The higher you climb…
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MM have rated a lot lower than the Daily Fail for a loooonng time. This si absolutely typical of their approach to “journalism.”
Especially their lack of response. Possible upcoming article from the great Mia herself in a few days; complete with oblique references to this event, while ignoring the issue at hand (plagiarism), and attacking “haters”.
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I think I smell a minion …
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Ginger. Great work…heroic in fact. Your care for your subjects stands out. Trust is a fundamental and without it a journalist can not work. These other so called journalists have gone a long way in killing trust and their “profession”. Please keep up your excellent work. These stories must be told.
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Thanks Jodie for putting it so simply: it IS plagiarism. My media studies were so long ago that was one of the most important lessons we learnt – not to steal other people’s work. And if one must use blocks of text provide acknowledgment. What is wrong with The Mail or Mamania referring to the original article? Oh I forgot, in this new world of “journalism” anything goes including lies and misinformation as well as theft. Surely Journalism 101 has not dispensed with the element of checking sources etc and its now teaching laziness of reporting.
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No doubt standards are slipping. Not just among Journalists.
In the Production business, we invariably see our work popping up in reels associated with minor players, previous employees and even presented as part of a job application back to us!
In one case, she (it’s not always men, folks) copied our whole reel then claimed to have been a founding member of the business and several associated with it.
I even see my own credits and credentials listed on LinkedIn, claimed by others.
But hey, Michelle Obama makes a speech and everyone applauds, Melania Trump makes the very same speech and nobody applauds. Unfair. Sad.
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Everyone needs to call cheats out. Because that is what people who indulge in plagiarism is. At least the guilty could have given the source recognition.
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Are there no legal recourse to the theft of your work?
I (naively?) assume that the cut and paste of your text – owned by one business and then stolen and resold on another news business website would be theft.
It sounds like re-birthing a stolen car!
Or does the ‘paraphrasing’ process get them around the legalities?
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Its disgusting but its the nature of the beast. I was ordered to do rewrites on Murdoch newspapers. The irony is that when I went to SE Asia to work as a freelancer, many wire services ripped off my stories. They wouldnt give me a gig fulltime, but were happy to rewrite my yarns. Well done Ginger. As a freelancer you maintain the passion and the ethics. great story.
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