How the News Corp tabloids lifted Seven’s harrowing exclusive

Tabloid tactics

7News Melbourne broke news of the harrowing attack on Helen Haines in its 6pm bulletin on Monday after she was rammed by a car outside her electorate office in Wangaratta.

The report quickly thrust the nation’s top newsrooms into action to tell their own readers, listeners and viewers of the events surrounding the independent federal MP for Indi in Victoria, who has since lost both her legs.

News Corp’s tabloids were lightning fast, getting their own version of events up across its numerous syndicated websites about 10 minutes later.

But how did they confirm the story so quickly? Reporters on the ground?

It looks like News actually cut out the middle man and lifted the report from the 7News bulletin.

Usually, what would happen when another newsroom breaks a story is you’d try to firm it up yourself before republishing it, particularly with serious events such as attacks on politicians. If you felt you really had to “churn it”, as they say in the industry, then standard practice is to acknowledge the original report, not just lift it.

On Background has analysed the copy in the piece published with no byline in the Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and other online editions at 6.14pm on Monday, and it includes almost all of Seven reporter Paul Dowsley’s live cross from less than 10 minutes earlier – word for word. News Corp was kind enough to write its own first two paragraphs, before lumping Dowsley’s cross in as the guts of the story.

What was the giveaway? Well, a big clue was they forgot to take out the word “Mitch” as Dowsley crossed back to 7News Melbourne’s Peter Mitchell at the end of the piece.

The story remained in that state for some time before it was rewritten later in the evening.

A News Corp spokesperson said the initial story “credited” Seven, despite that credit being words that came out of Dowsley’s own mouth.

“The story was constantly updated throughout the night as new details were confirmed. In the first version, some lines from Seven were inadvertently added for a short time,” the spokesperson said.

We don’t want to press this point too much, but when the company’s official line is to either “woo or sue” tech companies (meaning they either license out their quality journalism to trusted partners like OpenAI or Meta, or sue those who steal it without compensation), you’d probably want to make sure you’re not “stealing” someone else’s work.

Yes, we get it that in the age of declining reader revenue and the fight against social media there is still value in being quick. But more importantly, you have to be right. Or at the very least, make sure you’re not presenting someone else’s reporting as your own.

Another one bites the dust

Another Crikey editor is leaving the independent news outlet, with its top editor Alisha Rouse exiting just five months after taking over from editor-in-chief Sophie Black, On Background can reveal.

Rouse, who only joined the Private Media-owned publication in May last year as editor, stepped up when Black joined The Guardian one year later. Crikey previously had both an editor and an editor-in-chief role, though Private Media abolished the latter upon Black’s exit, meaning Rouse was left as top dog.

There has been quite a bit of turnover at Crikey. Few full-time arrivals have been restocking its editorial ranks, instead being mostly replaced by contributors.

Now Rouse is following Black over to The Guardian, where she will become an associate news editor, joining editor David Munk’s revamped parish.

He has begun to make his mark, as On Background also hears he has appointed a new second-in-charge, promoting national news editor Josephine Tovey to a new position of executive editor to oversee its news, politics and sport coverage. She will sit alongside Gabrielle Jackson, who remains deputy editor.

Munk, who replaced Lenore Taylor this year, has also made the bold decision to ditch The Guardian’s daily live blog – a staple of its Australian coverage since launching in 2013.

It’s an odd decision which has perplexed some staff, though we’re told the blog will remain during parliamentary sitting weeks. They did rush one up for the Helen Haines attack this week, however.

“We are experimenting with different ways to bring news to our readers, which includes adjusting the daily news live blog offering. But if news demands a live blog we will have one,” a spokesperson said.

Pressure test

Accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith has had some major wins recently. The first is that despite staring down a life sentence in jail, he is still free to get his “side of the story” across in duelling interviews with his friends in the media (News Corp and 2GB), with very little pushback offered against, say, being charged with five war crimes.

Lucy Zelic, who sits in the middle of that media venn diagram in working as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and as a weekly contributor on 2GB (though she is not a 2GB employee), was promoting the broadcast interview on air the night before, saying she “cannot wait for this Ben Roberts-Smith interview to drop”.

We know journalists don’t like to pick sides, but Zelic gushing while wearing merch from Roberts-Smith’s new Epic 1 Two clothing brand was a little on the nose. On Background wonders if everyone at the station got a merch pack as part of the interview deal?

A spokesperson for 2GB said: “2GB has no involvement with Mr Roberts-Smith’s clothing line.”

Another win for BRS is that due to the looming court case, he can return to his former moniker of “alleged war criminal”, as opposed to “war criminal” which was freely in use after he lost his defamation case against this masthead when a judge found to a civil standard that he had executed or ordered the execution of four Afghans, including one civilian which amounted to … war crimes. Roberts-Smith also revealed to interviewer Ben Fordham he has another nickname, “Front Dagger”, because he doesn’t stab people in the back …

But the biggest win is that the ex-army man now has his own catchphrase. BRS has been capping off his Instagram post to his followers, telling them to remember to “stay comfortable in the chaos”, with the phrase even appearing on his new clothing website. That’s cool, I guess.

Straight Shooters

Is it that time of year again already? Yes, it’s the Pollies vs Press shooting competition, organised annually by the Parliamentary Friends of Shooting.

Specifically, it is organised by co-chairs of that group, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and Labor member for Hunter Dan Repacholi.

The big shoot is going ahead on November 22 at 11am. It feels like they missed a trick not holding it an hour later at high noon.

Repacholi, for his part, was an Olympics level shooter. McKenzie, meanwhile, used to sneak out of her home after dark to hunt rabbits and foxes, later turning her barrels towards pigs. It has earned her the nickname “Shotgun McKenzie”, apparently.

Almost as cool as “Front Dagger”!

There is naturally an added flavour to this year’s event, considering the legal access to firearms which allowed the Bondi attack to take the lives of 15 people in December. McKenzie has opposed new laws aimed at curtailing access to guns at both federal and state level, claiming they lumped rural communities in with those in western Sydney “where the heart of Islamic extremism lives”.

Not that our invite arrived in the mail, On Background will probably stick to ball sports, instead.

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