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When a writer lifts thoughts - or even paragraphs - from an existing work, we call it plagiarism. But news organisations do the same, and call it aggregation. Sign up for our weekly email * _______________________________________________________________________ Submit By Willard Foxton * * * * * * Print HTML Oh dear. The Observer's chief political correspondent, Andrew Rawnsley, has been accused by Paul Staines of writing a piece that looks worryingly similar to something that ran in the Economist. Of course, Rawnsley is not the first journalist to be accused of passing of other people's work as his own (at the time of publication, he has not responded to Staines's allegations). Older people who I talk to in the industry say it's a very rare thing to happen - and when it does, it's usually an exhausted young graduate trainee who doesn't know any better. In my opinion, it happens all the time, it's just that people don't get caught very often. Johann Hari is the classic example - the only absolutely rock solid piece of plagiarism that could be pinned on him was a piece from a German newspaper article that he'd translated. That gets to the heart of why people aren't caught. The internet is a big place - most of the time, if you steal a clever blog post written in another country and publish it in a UK newspaper, no one is any the wiser. It's not just the stressed out kids doing it either. In 2011, a Pulitzer prize winner was caught stealing at the Washington Post. It's probably always happened - but the internet has made it easier to find, and quicker to do. "Quicker" gets to the heart of the issue. Quite a few are resorting to the Ctrl-V and Ctrl-C option when time is short, and there's always a fine line between "inspired by" and "lifted from". It used be the case that the hardest work you could do if you were a journalist was to turn in seven to ten articles a week, and that was only if you were writing on a daily paper. Magazine writers had the time to write big, expansive features, full of proper research and interviews. Now, many full-time journalists in print, broadcasting and online are being asked to blog, tweet, podcast and produce or edit 10-20 articles a week. In short, do two or three people's jobs. No wonder some are getting desperate. Of course, you still get some great journalism under this system. For example, perhaps the best meditation on Andy Murray's Wimbledon win was written by Ally Fogg in the Guardian. He wrote movingly of the way in which Andy Murray's win had given the town of Dunblane a reason to be memorable other than its ghastly 1996 school massacre. As soon as I read it, I thought, "That's a brilliant take on a difficult subject, totally different from anything I'd have been able to write". Unfortunately, lots of people didn't read it in the Guardian - a lot read it in the Washington Post. Whole chunks of Fogg's article - indeed, whole paragraphs, as well as the argument, thrust and premise of it, and the supporting quotes - were repeated wholesale on the American newspaper's website. While Fogg was credited, and his own original piece was linked to, as he said: "Y'know there's a fine line between 'thank you for crediting my work' and 'here's my invoice'." I have to ask the question, in a word where journalism is a commodity, is stealing essentially the whole premise of an article, and then providing a link that very few people will click on, any different from what Rawnsley is accused of doing? Copying and pasting Ally Fogg's Dunblane piece, then topping and tailing it, probably saved that Washington Post writer a good couple of hours. Easier than working for a living. IFRAME: //www.dianomi.com/smartads.epl?id=3585 It's not just American behemoths that are doing it either. British papers are doing it all the time too. Recently, I spoke to freelancer David Robinson, who had just had a feature printed in the Daily Express - about Nazi plans to bomb New York. Hours later, it was up on the Daily Mail website. Again, it linked back to Robinson's article - but it used his whole idea, and lifted the quotes he'd obtained, and the story he'd researched. As Robinson said to me: "As a freelancer I’m really only as good as my ideas. What rights do I have? It’s very dispiriting." This kind of aggregation is legal, if frustrating for hard-working writers like Robinson and Fogg. Pieces are linked to, original authors are mentioned, but you have to ask what that's really worth. Of course, the content aggregation thing has been around as long as wire copy - most papers most days will have some of that, usually covering it as "by staff writer". (I know of one paper which has a fictional writer to whom it attributes wire stories - Mr "Harry Banks" - note the spike in his work rate in August.) What's different is the aggregation stuff is getting bigger, and people are using less wire copy, and more stuff other media outlets that have put out. It has the advantage over wire copy of being free. In my opinion, some of this stuff is just as bad as plagiarism. Aggregators are parasites, only slightly more benign than plagiarists - and sooner or later, parasites kill the host. Someone has to actually create words for other people to steal. It's just that actually paying for people to be creative is expensive. We'd better work out a way for journalistic creativity to pay - or we're going to have a much worse media in a very short time. * * › The “go home” campaign has the hallmarks of a classic PR stunt The speed at which journalists are now required to provide copy has taken its toll. Photo: Getty Willard Foxton is a card-carrying Tory, and in his spare time a freelance television producer, who makes current affairs films for the BBC and Channel 4. Find him on Twitter as @WillardFoxton. Subscribe from just £1 per issue Most Popular * Last 24 hours * The Bennites’ revenge: how Jeremy Corbyn and his allies survived political exile By Jeremy Gilbert * Carillion’s collapse is an opportunity for Jeremy Corbyn By Stephen Bush * The slow death of the literary novel: the sales crisis afflicting fiction By Tom Gatti * The reputation game: how to control the way we appear in the eyes of others By Ian Leslie Managing real estate risk will require further work By Martin J. Brühl IFRAME: https://www.verdict.co.uk/brexit-tracker-embed/ More (BUTTON) COMMENTS Related articles * John Humphrys. A definitive list of sexist things John Humphrys has said * Anti-nuclear protester in Berlin wearing a Trump mask Donald Trump’s challenge to the taboo around nuclear weapons should worry us all * Donald Trump and Theresa May walking together. Why is Donald Trump’s tweet about visiting Britain headline news? IFRAME: //www.dianomi.com/smartads.epl?id=3402 New Statesman Magazine Subscription offer 12 issues for £12 + FREE book LEARN MORE Close This week’s magazine PHOTO: GETTY Show Hide image The Staggers 15 January 2018 Carillion’s collapse is an opportunity for Jeremy Corbyn The Labour leader should use the construction firm’s liquidation to advance his argument about the costs of privatisation. Sign up to the Staggers Morning Call email * _______________________________________________________________________ Submit [ns_stephen_bush_byline_drawing.jpg] By Stephen Bush Follow @@stephenkb * * * * * * Print HTML How do you solve a problem like Carillion? It turns out the answer is: you don't. The government has declined to bail out the troubled construction firm, and the banks declined to continue extending them credit. The firm has collapsed and gone into liquidation. (It hasn't gone into administration because it has no assets to sell.) The Telegraph estimates it will leave the Pension Protection Fund on the hook for at least £800m and the knock-on effects could drive small and medium-sized businesses that work for Carillion over the edge too. It also leaves the company's 48,500 employees, 19,500 of them in the UK, out of work, and the true figure is likely to be higher when you include the many contractors and freelancers the firm itself employed. The British government will also have to pay to keep the government services that Carillion ran going in addition to money already paid out to Carillion. What about the political fallout? Chris Grayling has a big target on his back as his department gave Carillion £2bn worth of contracts after its first profit warning. Labour pressure and lingering Tory discontent over the reshuffle could turn into a perfect storm for the Transport Secretary. And for Jeremy Corbyn it's a golden opportunity to advance his big argument about the costs of privatisation. That in of itself is interesting: one of the strengths that Ed Miliband had over Corbyn was his ability to make the political weather over crises like Carillion. Labour's quick and painless mini-reshuffle does show that the Labour leader is getting better at playing the game of politics. How and if Labour capitalise on Carillion will show us the extent of the improvement. [ns_stephen_bush_byline_drawing.jpg] Stephen Bush is special correspondent at the New Statesman and the PSA's Journalist of the Year. His daily briefing, Morning Call, provides a quick and essential guide to domestic and global politics. Subscribe from just £1 per issue Most Popular * Last 24 hours * The Bennites’ revenge: how Jeremy Corbyn and his allies survived political exile By Jeremy Gilbert * Carillion’s collapse is an opportunity for Jeremy Corbyn By Stephen Bush * The slow death of the literary novel: the sales crisis afflicting fiction By Tom Gatti * The reputation game: how to control the way we appear in the eyes of others By Ian Leslie Managing real estate risk will require further work By Martin J. Brühl IFRAME: https://www.verdict.co.uk/brexit-tracker-embed/ More Related articles * Jeremy Corbyn poses by a sign saying "the man". Jeremy Corbyn has a big majority on Labour’s NEC - but limits on his power remain * Momentum chair Jon Lansman appearing on The Andrew Marr Show. Jon Lansman’s long march to Labour’s top table * Boys walking in the dark in Calais An hour from Westminster, children are sleeping rough in the freezing woods IFRAME: //www.dianomi.com/smartads.epl?id=3402 New Statesman Magazine Subscription offer 12 issues for £12 + FREE book LEARN MORE Close This week’s magazine * © New Statesman 1913 - 2018 About us * NS Media Group * About us * Advertising * Contact us * History * Privacy policy * RSS feeds * Subscribe * T&Cs * Supplements X Subscribe today From just £1 an issue Subscribe Today Close ASD