Wednesday, February 02, 2005
SHOCK JOCKS OF PUBLISHING
“There was always only ever one natural buyer of Crikey,” writes Crikey.com.au proprietor Stephen Mayne, “and that was Eric and Di’s Private Media Partners.”
Good call. Private Media Partners publishes The Reader, which exhibits the same ruthless dedication to accuracy as Mayne himself. Consider this, from last year:
Dubbed the “shock jock” of blogging by The Sydney Morning Herald, journalist and Bulletin columnist Tim Blair has a history of stoushing with ABC TV’s Media Watch. More recently, he exposed a plagiarised story about the Redfern riots from the Chicago Tribune, resulting in the journalist’s sacking. Whether or not you agree with Blair’s often irrational diatribes, he’s arguably the most widely-read Australian blogger.
That’s two factual errors (the Trib firing was over an invented source; the “shock jock” line came from the Financial Review); one mischaracterisation (where are the “diatribes”?); and one unsupported assertion (“irrationalâ€?). All in just 64 words. Stephen’s site is in good hands.