Coverage spread: 2 sources — 2 right
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- A homeowner near Glasgow, Gordon Campbell, 42, lost milk bottles from his doorstep for about a month before setting up a camera.
- Campbell initially suspected a person (joking about a “militant vegan”) or magpies before the camera revealed a young fox as the culprit.
- A camera “sting” using a bait bottle caught the fox stealing milk just after 2:30 a.m. on July 20.
- Campbell had paused milk delivery over the thefts and now plans to resume it using a protective box, and his cat Bruce had previously chased off another fox from the house.
Where they differ
- Fox News includes explicit photo credits (Gordon Campbell/SWNS) and a stock image caption for the milk bottle photo, while the New York Post’s version omits these captions.
- Fox News attributes the write-up to a named production assistant, whereas the Post presents it purely as wire-sourced content without an individual byline.
- Fox News embeds unrelated promotional links (e.g., to a KitKat theft story and lifestyle quizzes), giving its page a more magazine-style, aggregated feel compared to the Post’s more streamlined presentation.
Weeks of vanishing milk bottles
Gordon Campbell, 42, who lives near Glasgow, Scotland, spent about a month baffled by disappearing glass milk bottles from his doorstep. He’d been getting milk delivered since the COVID-19 pandemic, but the repeated thefts got bad enough that he paused the service and switched to buying milk at the grocery store instead.
Campbell initially suspected a person was behind it, and told news agency SWNS he even joked the culprit might be “a militant vegan.” He also briefly blamed magpies, noting they’re smart birds, but reasoned they likely lacked the strength to roll a full bottle away.
The doorstep “sting”
To settle the mystery, Campbell installed a security camera and set what he called a “sting”: he put out a spare glass bottle filled with milk and aimed the camera at it. The trap worked fast. Just after 2:30 a.m. on July 20, footage captured a young fox trotting up the front steps, grabbing the bottle in its mouth, knocking it over and carrying it off.
Campbell said seeing the animal made him drop any irritation: he called it “hilarious” that the “cute fox” had been popping up and taking the milk, adding that “all was forgiven” once he saw its big ears and small face.
Not the neighborhood’s first fox encounter
This wasn’t the household’s only run-in with a fox. Months earlier, Campbell’s cat, Bruce, chased off another fox that had tried to get into the house through the cat door. Campbell now says he may restart his milk deliveries, but plans to leave out a protective box so bottles can’t be carried away again.
How the coverage compares
Both outlets covering this story, the New York Post and Fox News, ran essentially the same SWNS wire account with identical quotes from Campbell and the same sequence of events: the suspicion of a person or magpies, the “militant vegan” joke, the camera sting, and the July 20 footage of the fox. Fox News included additional photo captions identifying the images as supplied by Gordon Campbell/SWNS and credited a production assistant with compiling the piece, while the Post’s version ran without added visual captions or bylines beyond the wire attribution. Neither outlet added independent reporting, analysis, or additional sourcing beyond the original SWNS material.
Sources
Featured photo: SkateTier via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)