Freelance journalist Emily Epstein called the Daily Mail out on Twitter. (Credit: Twitter)
Freelance multimedia journalist Emily Anne Epstein accused the UK Daily Mail of plagiarizing her May 22 story for daily New York newspaper Metro.
Her story reported on the protests that have greeted a new ban on smoking in most New York City public parks. She quoted New Yorkers Jessica Kim, Chazz Awakirobon and Tyrell Dougeherty, the Parks Department’s Vicki Karp, and a smoker advocacy group representative, Audrey Silk.
The Daily Mail’s story, by Paul Bentley, quoted Dougeherty, Kim, Karp, Awakirobon and Silk. See Epstein’s Metro story here and the Daily Mail’s story here.
The Daily Mail did note that Kim’s quotes were to Metro, but provided no link or other attribution in the article to Metro, leaving readers to believe Dougeherty, Kim, Karp, Awakirobon and Silk’s comments were to the Daily Mail. Kim is quoted as saying:
“‘I sort of don’t obey the laws — so I’ll smoke anyways,’ East Village resident Jessica Kim, 23, told Metro.”
Also, that sentence is exactly the same as the Metro’s sentence, suggesting that Daily Mail copied and pasted.
It also quoted Zoe Rosario and Richard Crawford. The Daily Mail did include that Crawford’s comments were from an unidentified New York Times story, but provided no link to the Times. The Mail also didn’t identify the source of Rosario’s quotes.
A search of the Times’ website produces this May 22 story on the smoking ban. Among other reported interviews, the Times featured quotes from Rosario and Crawford.
iMediaEthics wrote in January when the Daily Mail was accused to plagiarizing the New York Times’ Christine Negroni’s story on electronic devices on airplanes. The Daily Mail later acknowledged the plagiarism and updated to tell readers the Mail “failed to attribute the source to the New York Times.”
SF Weekly accused the Daily Mail of churnalism in March, claiming the Mail “shamelessly ripped off and plastered” SF Weekly’s story on immigration visas without providing any link.
iMediaEthics has written to Epstein and the Daily Mail for comment and will update with any response.
