Repeaters

Fairfax repeater Jenny Keown really shouldn’t have put her name to the byline for the article on Stuff about the Ports of Auckland issue. She has basically cut/pasted Garry Parsloe’s press release in full from the Maritime Union website.

Comparing the two articles side by side there is a prima facie case of churnalism. Simply repeating a press release as if it was news.

• Union Press release: 455 words, 56 lines, 14 paragraphs
• Stuff news article: 397 words ,48 lines ,13 paragraphs

I have highlighted the direct cut/paste passages:

Yesterday David Farrar blogged using the following quote:

My response was to quote former United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and say “Events, dear boy, events”.

Today the same quote appears in John Armstrong’s article.

As British prime minister, Harold Macmillan was once asked what was the most likely thing to blow a government off course. “Events, dear boy, events,” he famously replied.

Coincidence, Channelling or Copying?

Oh look the Repeaters at the Herald are following me again.

Despite being acquitted of the crime, Chris Kahui murdered his twin sons, Chris and Cru, in 2006, National MP for Rotorua Todd McClay has said under cover of parliamentary privilege.

Addressing Parliament last week during the second reading of the Crimes Amendment Bill (No 2) Mr McClay brought up the deaths of the 3-month-olds as one example of the “very many cases of children being abused, harmed” each year.

“We had another high-profile case of the Kahui twins, who were murdered … I believe Chris Kahui killed those children, but … that is for others to consider now.”

Maybe they found out about what he said from this post yesterday.

Tracy Watkins spins that National party members are upset about “asset sales”.

She was obviously at a different conference to me, when only two people out of a room of over 400 asked questions. Her contention is wrong but it doesn;t stop from spinning. Of course the difference between the National party and other parties is that delegates are able to feel comfortable

State asset sales are proving to be a bone of contention even within National’s own ranks as its grassroots members question whether crucial assets will be flogged off overseas.

The government has struggled to reassure Kiwis that its plan to sell a 49 per cent stake in the remaining state owned power companies won’t see them end up in foreign ownership.

But it also appears to have done a poor selling job among its own members with Finance Minister Bill English facing questions from party members during a public session of the National Party conference in Wellington today.

Mr English said the government was working on ways to ensure Kiwi investors were at the front of the queue but acknowledged there was no way to stop them selling shares to overseas buyers.

This was shortly before the media up sticks and bolted before lunch.

Of course the difference between the National party and other parties is that delegates are able to feel comfortable, even in a stage managed event such as this conference, to stand upa nd voice a contrarian opinion. That is to be welcomed. Political sycophancy should be avoided assiduously.

Last week I blogged about Len Brown’s Christmas card and three days later the Herald on Sunday has a story about the very same thing. Google Len Brown Christmas Card and see what Google thinks. The Whale on top and The Herald several links down the page.

Yesterday I blogged about Japhet Simiona being hailed as a success story in a school bullying project. I broke that story, I published it first and loe and behold a NZ Herald repeater goes and does a story about the exact same thing. Now this is news and all good that it is exposed, but a little credit where credit is due is in order I think. (Note all the links…that’s how modern media does things)

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have broken stories and the repeaters ahve follwoed along one, two or even a week later. It would be nice of them to insert a line acknowledging where they heard about it from.

The thing is I know they heard about it from me first, because they all follow my Twitter account and read my Facebook wall. I’m sure as hell not following them on Twitter.

When bloggers use news stories to highlight their opinion they politely provide a link to the source story, it would nice if churnalists and repeaters did the same.

I might have to start billing I think. Either that or the various schools of churnalism start teaching these chumps about ethics, how to google, how to link to sources and other useful topics instead of them sitting on Facebook and Twitter hoping a story will land in their lap.

UPDATE: Just had an email from Jared Savage…he has said that he got the story from other sources…and that he was going to email me last night because he knew I would do a post like this lol… Good on Jared for emailing me.

It started as a trickle and now it is an avalanche.

I first noticed a couple of weeks ago a few journalists, churnalists and repeaters were starting to follow me on Twitter, then a few more, then even more and some are really obscure. Sure I had a few that were already, the heavy users and the like but the ones signing up now are just flunkies really.

It’s like they have all been on a course or got a memo or something. The funny thing is they are all set up the same way…so I’m thinking a course.

That would be typical, not ones to have any original thoughts about seeing that is out there, they wait till their overlords instruct them or send them a memo or on group hug bonding tweeting course or something.

There is a story in the HoS by repeater Anna Leask about a cop who stripped off to catch the crim he was after.

Now I wonder where did they get that story from? Oh that’s right from Blondie’s post. And the pricks even quote Blondie. But is there a link to the source of the story? Not fecking likely.

Constable Grant Burrows will do anything to catch a crim – he’ll even strip down to his boxers in the middle of an upmarket Auckland street.

And his near-naked efforts have earned him high praise from a female passerby.

The woman, who would only be called Blondie, said he was “quite a dish”.

The Newmarket cop didn’t think twice when it came to getting his gear off and diving into the Orakei Basin to chase an alleged thief on Thursday night.

And the repeaters wonder why we think so poorly of them.

These communications people with fancy titles sometimes really should lay off the sponsors products. [Shakes head] Still trying to work out what that says. She should stick to ratting out TVNZ staffers to the Minger and Pork Chop.

Disclaimer: I haven’t appeared ever on Q+A because Tim Watkin is too scared to call me (he has rung around every other blogger known to man begging them to come on the show) and has the same underhand agreement that Damien Christie has that I will never appear on any show that they produce. Such are the manipulations of the illuminati of the left-wing.

TV3 get’s an idea…or do they?

I wonder where they got the idea for this from?

Maybe this post?

Feckin’ repeaters, find your own news would ya, do you think it would be nice if they could start crediting or paying.

That’s two stories this week alone that the pricks have credited. Now you know why I call them repeaters and churnalists.

Guido Fawkes explains what is happening to the Times website and this is before they have even started charging for the paywall. The internet will defeat paywalls. Even ones thought up by Rupert Murdoch. Traffic is king and paywalls diminish traffic.

The “gurus”, and i use that term loosely seem to think that people will pay for what they can obtain elsewhere for nix. To some extent the demise of MSM to the online crowd-sourced world is a phenomenon of their own making. They still charge a premium for advertisements in the hard copy and devalue their online ad spaces to such an extent that they say the models do not work. Advertising isn’t about clicks it is about eyes on impressions.

I don’t know what the future holds for revenue and payment to online content providers, but I know one thing for sure, it isn’t paywalls and it isn’t CPC. Some one smart will crack this nut one day and the existing models will die faster than ever seen before. Mobility, speed and location crowd-sourcing are what the market wants. They don’t care that the picture is imperfect, or the video wobbles, they just want what is happening NOW, and will consume any content that gives it to them, and the less it is edited the better as far as they are concerned. All of that together makes the MSM methods of production and delivery obsolete.

The wall is up at The Times even if payment isn’t required yet. It started on May 24 and traffic has more than halved in the month since. It will probably halve again and then some when the cash register opens…

I’ll wager Danny Finkelstein, who is overseeing the Wapping paywall project, that within 12 months no Times political columnist will have more measurable readers online than Guido. Lunch at the restaurant of his choice…