Dear Readers,
We owe you an apology. Last night, we published a fabricated story titled: Mysterious Discovery at Cooks Landfill, Unidentified Fetus Found- and we want to explain why.
In our industry, the battle against plagiarism and stolen news stories is real. Unfortunately, we’ve been a victim of such practices, with our articles shamelessly repurposed without credit by entities like Antigua Breaking News and Antigua News Room.
We felt compelled to take drastic measures to raise awareness of this issue. Hence, we devised a trap—a fake story—to expose the unethical behavior we’ve been combating.
While we share the same press releases and similar information from government entities, stories like what was posted need to be verified before republishing.
If those who reposted it without CREDITING THE SOURCE had verified it, they would have found that it didn’t happen.
Our beloved readers, while our intentions were noble, we understand the breach of trust this may have caused. Journalism is built on integrity, and by resorting to such tactics, we risked compromising our own principles.
Rest assured, this was an isolated incident, born out of desperation to address a persistent problem in our industry.
Moving forward, we are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism, ensuring that every story we publish is thoroughly vetted and fact-checked.
We value your trust and loyalty, and we promise to do better. Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Antigua.news
Love this. I understand completely why you’d do this if people are stealing your hard worked for stories without even making a call to confirm the story themselves. Good on exposing them.