Cracked.com | Mail Online | The Next Web | International Business Times
No one familiar with Poynter’s vast archives on Mail Online, the Web home of the Daily Mail, should be surprised that the world’s largest newspaper site plundered a Cracked.com article about the world’s worst tourists, nor that it later credited the original piece with two microscopic links.
What’s actually shocking is that Mail Online ripped off an article composed almost entirely of sensational stories the site had already covered. Consider the stories in the piece:
1) The Chinese teen who defaced an Egyptian temple
Covered by the Daily Mail on May 27, 2013
2) American man in Greece catches and eats rare octopus
Covered by the Daily Mail on July 26, 2013
3) Stranded dolphin dies after tourists pose for photos with it
Covered by the Daily Mail on June 17, 2013 (and yet another example of the publication’s fascination with dead dolphins, e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
4) American man in Italy breaks finger off ancient statue
Covered by Daily Mail on Aug. 6, 2013 (For what it’s worth, Cracked reports the man was from Missouri; Daily Mail says he’s from Connecticut and appears to be correct.)
5) French vandals deface Cliffs of Moher
Incredibly, I was unable to find this story in the Mail Online archives. The publication made up for the lapse Aug. 1, however, with an article about how bloated Robbie Williams looked onstage.
