diff --git a/tools/gitlog-to-news b/tools/gitlog-to-news
index c70b909..ed163b5 100755
--- a/tools/gitlog-to-news
+++ b/tools/gitlog-to-news
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/bin/bash
 # Formats and concatenates long commit messages
 #
 #  Copyright (C) 2012, 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@@ -24,5 +24,18 @@ git log --log-size --format="%H%n%B" \
   | grep -A1 '^log size \([5-9][0-9]\{2,\}\|[0-9]\{4,\}\)$' \
   | grep -o '^[a-z0-9]\+$' \
   | grep -vFf "${1:-/dev/null}" \
-  | xargs -n1 git log -n1 --date=rfc --no-notes \
+  | while read id; do
+      # try to account for ChangeLogs in commits
+      text=$(
+        git log -n1 --date=rfc --no-notes "$id" \
+          | awk '/^    \* /{ exit } { print }'
+      )
+
+      # remember that four (or five, if merge) of these lines are the header
+      # (including empty line)
+      len=$( wc -l <<< "$text" )
+      test "$len" -gt 10 || continue
+
+      echo "$text"
+    done \
   | awk '/^commit/ && NR!=1 { printf "\n\n" } { print }'