- Rogers Sportsnet... apparently likes using plagiarism as part of its new media strategy: A Hockey Hearsay post that appeared Saturday lifted four consecutive paragraphs absolutely word-for-word from a Friday column by Sun Media's Eric Francis. There is, at this writing, no attribution, no quotation marks, no blockquotes and anyone reading it who doesn't click through which is left to wonder whom the hell "Kissel" and "Ridson" are, since Francis identified each in a part of the column that Sportsnet.ca didn't, uh, borrow.
Just embedding a link doesn't remove all the rules about giving proper credit to the journalist who, you know, actually did the reporting and writing. Come on, Sportsnet, you're a lot better than that.
UPDATE, 4:40 p.m.: A commenter points out that the Toronto Star's Damien Cox was also ripped off by Sportsnet.ca on the weekend. Coincidentally, Cox and Francis each do a lot of TV work for rival TSN.
Two grafs from this Cox article which ran last Saturday appeared word-for-word at Hockey Hearsay the very same day. There's no full, complete attribution.
It could be a mistake committed by a 21-year-old summer student who honestly doesn't know any better, but that's really no excuse. - Hate Barry Bonds on general principle, but don't drag math into it: Hardball Times' John Beamer delivers a sabermetric smackdown to any stugots who's trying to say Ken Griffey Jr. was (a) the better player or hitter and (b) would have beaten Bonds to Henry Aaron's career total of 755 if he had stayed healthy. It just doesn't add up.
- MLS: FC 0, Houston Dynamo 0. With the nil-nil tie, Dynamo got to extend its shutout streak, FC ran its unbeaten streak to four and best of all, no one had to feel inferior. Sorry if that sounded sarcastic. Hey, if Mo Johnston's men beat Columbus next weekend, they would be only one point out of a playoff spot with games in hand
- John Ferguson, dead at 68: He never skated till he was 11, won five Stanley Cups and helped coach Team Canada '72. You'll never see that again in a million years.
- Co-blogger Ted let a greasy Canadian write a long-winded screed about the Expos over at A Price Above Bip Roberts.
- Don't hate her because she's beautiful, hate her for using The Roger Clemens Book of Baby Names: Fetching first lady of fastpitch Jennie Finch has an infant son named, wait for it, Ace. The boy definitely was named more after his mom than his dad -- Finch three-hit Canada yesterday at the softball World Cup, but her husband Casey Daigle has a 6.63 earned-run average with the Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders.
(So why a picture of Junior Griffey and not Jennie Finch? What a dick move, Sagert.)
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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7 comments:
68 is too young by todays standards. Hate to see John Ferguson leave us so early. As a kid I was a Leafs fan, Sens fan now, but I always got a kick out of watching Ferguson when he was with the Habs. Condolences to his family and freinds.
My dad went to high school with Fergie at Vancouver Tech. One little reported fact is that he was a stick boy for the old Vancouver Canucks of the Western Hockey League. John Ferguson was a legend and Neate is right -- you won't see the likes of him ever again. He was both an original and a pioneer.
I just looked through a couple of Hockey Hearsay posts and it seems that's their M.O. They include two or three feeble lines introducing the story, add a link to the article, then copy a paragraph or two from that article. See, for example, paragraphs 4 and 5 of this and grafs 8 and 15 of the Star article. Trust me when I say they've apparently done this for a long time, lifting, as you said, absolutely word-for-word.
Hockey Hearsay is obviously a clearinghouse of sorts for hockey news, but there are much better ways to do this sort of thing. It's yet another reason not to make the connection between Sportsnet and journalistic ethics.
to Rob: Well, doesn't that put the shaz in shazam. Maybe the right people in the Toronto Star sports dept. should be informed of this.
to Dennis: Reading "Vancouver" makes me wonder how many B.C. boys were in the league during the Original Six era... it seems like any bio/background you see on players of that vintage refers to them being Prairie farmboys, from Ontario or from Quebec.
A lot of those great senior teams Canada sent to the world championships in that era were from B.C.: the '55 Penticton Vees; the '61 Trail Smoke Eaters; the 1958 Kelowna Packers who were the first Canadian team to go to the Soviet Union. Looking back, those teams probably had a few players who were NHL players, but never got noticed.
The Star did note Fergie's days as a stickboy with the original WHL Canucks -- the story goes that he had a grudge against Johnny Bower since, in his recollection, Bower didn't tip him $5 at the end of the season when he played in Vacouver. Bower swears he did.
what? no U20 coverage? allow me...
so after all of the piling on canada's u20 team for a) not advancing, b) not winning, and c) not scoring a goal, does the fact that two of the teams from their group made it to the final four of the tournament? sure austria upset an imploding american team, and sure the chileans may have benefited from a shakey; however, both former group A teams made it through. now i have never been one to stop a media-made "crisis" - especially by the canadian media - but perhaps canada couldn't score because their opponents were actually good.
stugots? neate soprano?
Excellent point, Ross... my mistake.
To be honest, I was busy with other writing on the weekend and didn't get a chance to watch all the U20 football, so it would have been a little hard to come up with something worth saying.
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