Mail Online rips off freelancer's Emma Thompson exclusive
Updated 11.45am: John Hiscock, the veteran Los Angeles freelancer, was outraged when MailOnline published an interview he had written, on a exclusive basis, for the Daily Mirror.
After some 40 years based in Santa Monica, plus several years on national papers in Britain before that, he knows all about Fleet Street competition, and how it leads to editors "ripping off" - to use the jargon - rivals' scoops.
Similarly, he is also aware, in these digital days, that no story is exclusive for long.
Even so, he was amazed to see how Mail Online treated his interview with Emma Thompson that was published in the Mirror on Friday (15 November).
She revealed to Hiscock that 45 years ago an elderly magician hired by her parents for her eighth birthday party kissed her inappropriately. She explained that the experience had affected her so strongly that it prompted her to write a handbook on sex and emotion for her 13-year-old daughter, Gaia.
Mail Online responded by running the interview verbatim on its site, under the byline "Daily Mail reporter", without any attribution to Hiscock or the Mirror.
It was, says Hiscock, "the most blatant and egregious case of plagiarism I have ever come across."
He was so angry he wrote to Mail Online's editor, Martin Clarke, and to the Daily Mail's editor, Paul Dacre:
"It has been brought to my attention that you have lifted the exclusive interview I did with Emma Thompson from the Daily Mirror and reproduced it word-for-word without any attribution in the Mail Online under the heading 'Emma Thompson reveals that she was "sexually abused" by a magician during her eighth birthday party.'
It is the most blatant and egregious case of plagiarism I have ever come across and if it happens again I will take steps to ensure I am adequately compensated for the theft of my interview."
Clearly, someone at MailOnline realised it had gone too far, and the copy was rewritten the following day, but still including the direct quotes from Thompson to Hiscock. And still without any reference to its provenance.
The headline was also changed, but the original one - "Emma Thompson reveals that she was 'sexually abused' by a magician during her eighth birthday party" - can be found on Google, as above.
Life for freelances like Hiscock has become increasingly tough in recent years. At the least, he deserves compensation, and an apology, from the Mail.
What this episode illustrates, once again, is the jackdaw culture of Mail Online, living off the work of other newspapers. It is ethically dubious. And I wonder whether it will it be outlawed by the code now being drawn up for the new press regulator.
Update 11.45am: I have now heard from a Mail spokesman. He assures me that in the original posting there was a Daily Mirror attribution, which was inexplicably omitted during a rewrite. He said that bottoms will be kicked and that an executive will be calling John Hiscock to explain and to apologise.
View all comments >