3:42 PM

(15) Comments

Blogosphere has some harsh words for the Irish Independent

Value Ireland

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Some comments going round a couple of blogs today about the attitude of the Irish Independent towards bloggers. Damian Mulley mentions here that they're looking for people to blog for them on their site for free. While over at Maman Poulet, there's talk of an Irish Independent phenomonen that I'm pretty familiar with myself.

That is where Irish Independent journalists trawl websites using their easily identifiable work PC's looking to theive stories for their own paper. Here's how it works:
  • I write an article (on getting cheaper home insurance for example) and post it on Value Ireland.
  • Then, a few days later, I read the Irish Independent and see an article called "Top tips to make sure you get a bargain"
  • I read said article, but then I start getting a sense of deja-vu.
  • And then at the last "top tip", I realise that my work has just earned some journalist his salary for the week, while I get nothing, not even a credit or mention for the original material.

Let's play a game of "Spot the Difference" - answers via Comments please. Firstly, from the Irish Independent in 2007.

You could bring down your premium costs by volunteering to pay more of an excess
towards the cost of each claim. Only do this if you can afford to do so,
however.

And now, from Value Ireland way back in 2004

Larger Excess - You could bring down your premium costs by volunteering to pay more of an excess towards the cost of each claim. Only do this if you can afford to do so however.

15 Responses to "Blogosphere has some harsh words for the Irish Independent"
Anonymous said :
1:13 AM
Send the Indo an invoice for your work.

If they don't pay, use the small claims court.
dahamsta said :
6:01 PM
The Star "journalists" are notorious for this kind of crap too, they're always reposting stuff from Foot.ie. Which means they're not just stealing from the site, but from the individual users too. Talentless hacks.
Anonymous said :
6:09 PM
At the very least the Newspapers should publicly apologise for the "work" of their columnist. If they were forced to name, shame and punish "journalists" who simply rip off other sources and get paid for it then perhaps those professionals would think twice before cut and pasting the property of amatures.
Anonymous said :
1:59 AM
This is nothing new in Irish journalism. The Mail have nicked several of my stories that were published in one of the Independent's titles. It pisses me off and it's the lowest of the low.
Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said :
2:19 PM
I really hope you pursue this with them. That's out-of-order in the biggest way. Tell the Irish Times or something. From what I hear it's the best one to read.
Green Ink said :
11:15 AM
The Copy and Paste Campaign begins!
Anonymous said :
7:10 PM
ya a bit like the naive lads on blognation.com not getting paid by Sam Sethi. Eh Conor?
Curly K said :
10:34 PM
This post has been removed by the author.
Curly K said :
10:38 PM
Good God - they hadn't even the decency to re-phrase the wording on the article. Plagiarism at it's very best.
Susan said :
10:25 AM
In other countries, that 'journalist' would have had to publicly apologise to you, could very likely lose his/her job, and the paper would pay out a healthy compensation.

It's sad that people no longer take pride in themselves or in their work, and that they stoop to theft because they can't put in an honest hour's work themselves.

It's saddest of all that they get away with it so easily. After all, WHO is going to report it to the masses...themselves??

Or, who knows--perhaps this is their way of selling papers. They know they've lost the respect of many Irish readers; but if we all have to buy the thing to check for our own stolen work, hey, sales are sales.

Sick.

Thank you for pointing this out!
patrick obrien said :
1:07 AM
m
abhi said :
8:26 PM
you can use a service called copyscape to check for plagiarism. however the free version limits how often you can run the check per day.
Anonymous said :
9:15 AM
http://www.blurredkeys.com/2008/08/independent-gro.html
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1:42 AM
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Anonymous said :
12:14 PM
Typical of Weston. Tries to come across as peoples champion but really he is just a copy and paste king. I would email him and ask him to explain why he did this.

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