Today in Media Files, serial plagiarist Tanveer Ahmed is writing again, this time for the ABC, and Sami Shah has called out the Daily Mail‘s latest work of fiction.

ABC takes on plagiarist’s column. Serial plagiarist and psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed is back in publication — this time, at your ABC. Ahmed was most spectacularly sprung by the public broadcaster’s own Media Watch in 2012 having plagiarised about a third of his Fairfax columns. Two years later, Ahmed was caught out again after he’d moved over to News Corp’s The Australian, when blogger Ketan Joshi did some plagiarism checks on his work. And earlier this year, parts of a column for Spectator Australia bore remarkable similarities to an article in The Atlantic. But over the weekend, an opinion column by Ahmed appeared on the pages of the ABC’s news pages, on the hot topic of drug testing welfare recipients. An ABC spokeswoman said Ahmed had pitched the column, and it had “gone through the usual editorial checking process”. “As a psychiatrist working on a mental health team in Sydney’s Bankstown, Dr Ahmed brings a particular and valuable insight into the area the Federal Government has chosen for its first trial into drug testing welfare recipients,” the spokeswoman said.

Daily Mail‘s latest work of fiction. Comedian and writer Sami Shah has called out the Daily Mail Australia for a story riddled with inaccuracies. The article’s headline claims Shah and his family “fled to Australia”, and that they had “escaped Pakistan”. In a Facebook post, Shah said he and his wife had migrated on a skills-based work visa, and had returned to Pakistan to visit frequently. “Not once has the Daily Mail contacted me for a quote, asked me for my opinion or tried to fact check anything it’s written,” he wrote. In a subsequent post, Shah said he couldn’t afford to take legal action over the article: “The last person to sue and win was Melania Trump. That’s how much it costs. I have three jobs (day job, writing, comedy) just to cover my basic monthly expenses. Fighting back on social media is my best resource right now.”

The story was written up ahead of the ABC’s Australian Story tonight, which features Shah.

Headline of the day.

Worth a read. According to a report from BuzzFeed‘s news media editor Craig Silverman over the weekend, the International Business Times‘ Australian edition is using a ghost office and overseas labour for local content:

“A review of IBT Australia’s website by BuzzFeed News found that its Australian news content is actually being produced by writers in the Philippines, and the address listed for its Australian office is occupied by people who say they don’t work for the company …  Americans, Australians, and others in developed nations are used to consuming cheap goods from overseas. Increasingly — and often unwittingly — they are also getting news and information from there as well. What makes IBT Media stand out is that it’s a relatively large American media company that’s apparently operating a country edition without anyone in the country actually writing for it.”

Braving Houston floods. A Houston reporter and cameraman were left providing 100% of KHOU’s coverage during catastrophic flooding after their station was evacuated. Brandi Smith and Mario Sandoval were reporting from the road when the station was flooded, and they continued the broadcast alone, with Smith’s voice breaking at times while reporting on the devastation. At one point, Smith flagged down authorities to help a truck driver trapped in his truck in the flood waters.

Facebook makes transparency appointment. Facebook has hired The New York Times‘s former public editor in an attempt to have more “transparency” around its decisions. Liz Spayd was the last public editor before The Times cut the role earlier this year. A Facebook spokeswoman told Recode that her job would be to “chronicle what (Facebook) does related to everything from terrorism to fake news to privacy”.

Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings. Well I was wrong. I thought Little Big Shots on Seven wouldn’t do well, but it did very well —  no very, very well — and has provided the second big programming shock of the year. It blew The Block out of the water, beating it nationally by a 950,000 viewers — 2.61 million to 1.68 million.

The first ratings shock of the year was the success of the Australian Ninja Warriors on Nine, which caused Seven to hold back Little Big Shots. That delay proved wise last night as it grabbed 1.67 million metro viewers and 947,000 in the regions. The success of Little Big Shots will have put a smile on Seven’s dial after being whacked by the Ninja Warriors, then The Block and then flopping with Hell’s Kitchen and the Blue Murder sequel.

Seven won in the regions with Little big Shots on top with 947,000, followed by Seven News with 657,000, The Block was on 500,000, fourth was Sunday Night with 491,000 and Nine/NBN News 6.30 was fifth with 480,000. — Read the rest on the Crikey website