The New York Daily News scored coup with its “exclusive” photo of Bashid Mclean holding the severed head of his mother, Tanya Byrd. Mclean has been charged by New York City police with “second-degree murder and two felonies related to the improper disposal of her body.”
But, at least three news outlets used that photo without giving credit to the Daily News, iMediaEthics has found. As iMediaEthics wrote March 3, the New York Daily News told us that it added a black dot to censor the head of Mclean’s mother Tanya Byrd. The NYPD denied giving the media the photo and the Daily News wouldn’t provide any information to iMediaEthics about the source of the photo.
And iMediaEthics’ photo analysis determined that the New York Post, the Daily Mail and the Huffington Post all used the New York Daily News’ photo, even though none gave credit.
Well, maybe those websites bought the photo from the Daily News through licensing?
Nope. The Daily News’ representative confirmed it didn’t give the photo to the New York Post, Daily Mail or Huffington Post. Source Communications CEO Ken Frydman, on behalf of the Daily News, told iMediaEthics by email:
“The Daily News neither sold nor provided that photo to any other media organization.”
PHOTO COMPARISON: See how each of the outlets cropped the Daily News’ photo to use on their websites. iMediaEthics used a black outline to indicate where, if at all, the Daily News photo was cropped when other outlets used it. As judged by the placement and size of the black censor, the four images, when compared, show that the Daily Mail, Huffington Post and New York Post images are identical to the Daily News’ exclusive image. (Credit: Robert Slawinski/iMediaEthics)
So why no credit? If the Post, Mail, and Huffington Post think it’s fair use to publish the Daily News’ “exclusive photo,” there should be a photo credit in iMediaEthics’ view. Especially since the Daily News did the Photoshop work.
Check out, for example, the New York Post’s use of the image with no mention of the New York Daily News.
The Daily Mail not only used the Daily News’ image without credit, it misspelled McLean’s name as “Bahsid,” which it apparently copied from the New York Post .Check out iMediaEthics’ story on that error. (Credit: NYPost, screenshot)
iMediaEthics has written to the New York Post, the Daily Mail and the Huffington Post asking why they didn’t include captions crediting the Daily News and did they view their publication as falling under the Fair Use clause. We’ll update with any responses.