16 November 2010

RiotACT now a source for The Australian?

| breda
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In this morning’s Australian online, the Strewth column has two snippets which seem to have been lifted directly from this esteemed site – one on the Zimbabwean ambassador’s disrobing, and another on Robert Fisk’s comments about Canberra.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/all-about-paul/story-e6frgdk6-1225953447663

Strewth has always been one of the worst parts of a declining organ. So, Johnboy, is this a compliment, an insult or just plain laziness?

Can we look forward to snippets (or are they just snips?) on the intricacies of infrastructure in Gungahlin, the state of the Tuggeranong Parkway and tree removal in Ainslie in future?

At least it means they are reading it, I suppose.

[ED – We’ve long enjoyed being an inspiration to our dead tree friends]

For the Record: Strewth swears blind they sourced the items independently of us.

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ABC’s “Media Watch” love this stuff. Actually, that would just expose Riotact to the wider community. Bad idea!

Perhaps we should contact Norman Abjorensen and Robert Fisk and invite them to join Riot-ACT- make them honourary ACT-liens for their efforts to show Canberra as the least worthwhile place in Australia to live, work and play.

James_Jeffrey10:41 am 16 Nov 10

And may your dead tree friends (such as the Independent and the Zimbabwe Guardian) continue to be an inspiration to you.

James_Jeffrey10:39 am 16 Nov 10

Thanks for the correction (of sorts). Peace be with you.

It’s really more of a forum than a blog, and the original poster isn’t a member of staff, so I wouldn’t hold my breath awaiting a correction.

James_Jeffrey3:55 pm 15 Nov 10

There’s no denying Robert Fisk isn’t one of News Ltd’s favourite journalists, but I find him endlessly interesting and it’s quite droll that anyone thinks my tiny bit of tongue-in-cheek constitutes an attempt to blacken his name.

Meanwhile, this blog continues to endow me with the magic talent of ripping it off before I’d even heard of it. This more than compensates for the heartache at knowing Strewth hasn’t resonated in your heart/s.

The cat did it12:51 pm 15 Nov 10

Murdoch’s organ is always on the lookout for items to blacken Robert Fisk. Fisk writes some strange articles at times, and he warrants being called to account on them. Most the time though, he’s been a lot more prescient than the Murdoch media, and they never forgive him for it.

Unlike Fisk, the Murdoch media got Iraq willfully wrong from the outset- they were willing partners in Dick Cheney’s lies and propaganda- and Fox News continues the tradition. Remember Rupert’s comments that the Iraq war would be a good thing because it would bring oil prices down to $20 a barrel?

James_Jeffrey12:11 pm 15 Nov 10

Thanks, Breda. As I cited the original sources for the stories, I think we can safely say the middleman was cut out.

I’m gutted Dennis beat me.

Well, JJ, now you can cut out the middlemen.

The only reason you didn’t get the wooden spoon was because of Dennis Shanahan. Sorry about that, it was a tough call, but there can only be one winner.

James_Jeffrey11:35 am 15 Nov 10

I wasn’t aware of RiotACT until quarter of an hour ago, but that spot of ignorance has been cleared up, thanks to @ourmancanberra on Twitter. If in future I ever use anything from here, I’ll attribute it. For the record, the Zimbabwean item was emailed to me by a colleague and the link to the Robert Fisk piece I spotted on Twitter. In both cases, I mentioned where the items were from – so talk of “plagiarism” and sources left “uncited” is a bit off the mark.

As for “one of the worst parts of a declining organ”, why not have the grace to name Strewth definitively as THE worst part? If I’m that close to getting the wooden spoon from you guys, I want to be able to feel it in my grasp.

Nice work with the zebras, by the way.

James Jeffrey fairly regulalry leaves sources uncited, and seems to think he doesn’t have to since his articles fall under opinion instead of anything vaguely related to journalism. 😛

Christian Kerr, on the other hand, just approaches Jb for comment directly when he wants a personal insight to the blogosphere*, or is civil enough to mention RA by name when he’s using it as a source.

*: Blogosphere is a terrible word. I hate it with an intense passion, which burns with the fire of a thousand nuns.

Slightly better than the journalists who lift articles directly from urban legend emails. I was startled to hear ABC radio reporting about a fake email virus one day.

You could always pass the plagiarism on to Mediawatch?

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