Blatant evidence of Fox plagiarizing Al Jazeera
33 2014-07-16 by [deleted]
Reading Al Jazeera for objective news and Fox for absurd news, I came across an article in both regarding Israel's renewed attack on Gaza Strip. When I reached a paragraph in the Fox article, it seemed strangely familiar: it was an almost verbatim copy of a paragraph in the Al Jazeera article, which was released earlier in the day. The Al Jazeera paragraph (3rd one down) reads:
Zahar was a key figure in Hamas rise to power in 2007, while the other three were members of the Palestinian parliament elected in 2006. Many Hamas leaders have gone into hiding since the beginning of the Israeli offensive.
The Fox News paragraph (also the 3rd one down) reads:
Zahar was a key figure in Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, while the other three were members of the Palestinian parliament elected in 2006. Many Hamas leaders have gone into hiding since the beginning of the Israeli offensive.
The Italicized part is the only difference, and those words are clearly more anti-Palestinian. Even the titles of the articles reveal the difference in bias. Al Jazeera's title is "Israel targets homes of senior Hamas leaders" (reasonably neutral), and Fox's title is "Israel warns Gazans to leave homes as Hamas urged to accept cease-fire" (strong Israeli bias).
So what does this mean? Fox News is relying on Al Jazeera's Middle East news coverage and adding buzz words to make it AIPAC-friendly. I already didn't take Fox News seriously, but wow.
Links:
Edit: I have since been informed that the quotation in question has actually been used by countless news reporters everywhere, all citing the Associated Press. So, I take away my criticism of Fox for plagiarism, and I am replacing it with a disgust for how lazy everyone is. Is it that difficult for people to paraphrase a source?
9 comments
4 ridestraight 2014-07-16
Good catch!
3 [deleted] 2014-07-16
[deleted]
3 ridestraight 2014-07-16
It's an unpleasant task I'm sure. Thank you!
2 [deleted] 2014-07-16
[deleted]
3 ridestraight 2014-07-16
It's difficult but very important to listen to many varied sources of News and Information. This is how you learn to filter and discern for the parts that resonate with you and the parts that cause you to pause.
I'm impressed with your cranial sacrifice!
3 waylaidbyjackassery 2014-07-16
And they aren't even ashamed.
3 zonkerton 2014-07-16
I like how the Fox piece doesn't even have an author. Wtf...
3 Persona_Manager 2014-07-16
They have to get real news from somewhere after all.
3 twsmith 2014-07-16
Actually, it appears that the original wording was "Zahar was a key figure in Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in 2007" and that it was Al Jazeera that changed the wording.
There are many news stories that use the phrase, including an Al Jazeera item from yesterday. All the news stories credit the Associated Press or "wire services", so there doesn't appear to be plagiarism, just authorized use.
1 [deleted] 2014-07-16
[deleted]
1 twsmith 2014-07-16
I don't know how to find out which article came first.
2 tempbrianna 2014-07-16
How about looking at a news agency like Associated Press or Reuters? If you look at both articles they give credit to the AP, which is where they both got the information from...no conspiracy here. Here's some info on news agency's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_agency