Blurred Keys

- Press Ombudsman says plagiarism is covered
- We get legal threats from an Irish Independent journalist

As examples of plagiarism are mounting against newspapers in the group, Independent News & Media seem to be unable to keep their hands off the copy and paste function of their PCs.

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Vincent Browne’s Village magazine is to cease publishing, he called the process a "suspension," and said to the Irish Independent that he hoped to resume printing in future. The magazine’s website, Village.ie, will continue, although it is currently off-line for updating.

After previous cuts in the workforce, the three remaining staff will be let go.

He told the Irish Times the move is due to "a significant downturn in advertising and the cancellation of special
contract publications we were undertaking for third parties."

Village was expecting to make a small profit this year, but the contract publications were central to this. In a recent interview with Marketing magazine Browne said: "My only backer, Michael Smith, lost about €260,000 and I lost in the region
of €1.2 million. Village is going to be a marginal exercise but we can
make money on contract publishing and we should make significant money on the
website".

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission has said ‘Biffo’, the nick name for the Taoiseach Brian Cowen, does not insult him and was "highly unlikely to cause widespread offence”.

Complainant, Charlie McGrory, objected on the grounds of fairness, objectivity and impartiality, and taste and decency, after presenter of RTE Radio 1 News at One, Sean O’Rourke (pictured), said "did Biffo blink?".

According to the BCI: "McGrory states he is not a Fianna Fáil member or activist but finds this reference to the office of Taoiseach disrespectful, lacking objectivity and in poor taste.  He wonders how we can encourage our young people to become active in politics when the national broadcaster refers to the Taoiseach as ‘Biffo’"

The acronym, depending on your point of view, can mean ‘Big Intelligent Fellow From Offaly’ or ‘Big Ignorant Fucker From Offaly’. RTE said it "has as much to do with a boy’s comic character from the 1950’s as it has to do with any reference to people from County Offaly. Indeed, the term has been used by Mr Cowen himself in a humorous context".

The broadcaster added that, generally speaking, it does not and will not use the term ‘Biffo’ when referring to the Taoiseach and this was used as a ‘headline’ to attract listeners to stayed tuned in before an ad break.

MORE: Decision in full (MS Word doc)
MORE: List of decisions of July 2008

A round-up of news, comment and other info from news sites blogs, and message boards etc…

Cardinal challenges the media’s ‘dominant’ secular view
Sunday World top of the pops as it avoids musical marketing
Ireland’s papers defy downward trends
JNLR July 07-June 08 Survey results issued (PDF)
ABC IofI report (PDF, link replaced when new report released)
Tom Dunne to Newstalk
Today FM to preserve Pet Sounds
Ray of sunshine
Muzu makes music pa
Media world: Too Late Late for Pat Kenny?
RTE promises ’spectacular’ first Late Late Show despite Kenny’s delay in signing up
Lung cancer under reported in Irish media - report
Sunday Times to launch monthly Irish edition of Style magazine
South Ossetian man angered by Irish media coverage
MediaBite Email Re: The €11m ‘gas bill’
Media ought to beware groups bearing surveys
Belfast Telegraph relaunched website sees huge traffic spike
Myers and Nigerians
RTE Television unveils new season
Sponsors fail to check in to Failte Towers
The Big Switch over
BCI National Conference Asks ‘Does the Medium Matter?’
O’Brien group told January DTT launch is a ‘fantasy’
Digital terrestrial TV available from autumn next year
Adverts rate alert for Channel 6
TV3 to buy Channel 6 for €10m
Is RTE Radio 1 being dumbed down?
Mandy and the Irish Media

At the end of a blog post, ‘Privacy 3 - 0 Press‘, cearta.ie writes:

"Finally, eagle-eyed readers might have noticed that the sources linked
for the two Irish cases are media reports, while the source linked for
the English case is the text of the judgment itself on Bailii. If
English judges and the courts’ administration can ensure the rapid
electronic publication of judgments, why oh why oh why oh why can Irish judges and the Courts’ Service not be able to do the same?"

Our first thoughts are: it may not be positive. Less journalists being sent to the courts or less newspapers willing to pay for court agency copy?… but such isn’t too likely as there is a reliance, at least in the daily  or breaking news cycles, for a number of articles/reports on many cases. And the judgements would not provide for this.

On the positive front, wouldn’t it allow journalists greater/quicker access to more case judgements, many of which would otherwise go unreported?

A boards.ie user spotted the above story this morning on RTE.ie News where a map outline of the US state of Georgia was being used on a story about the country of the same name.

Regular Blurred Keys users will be aware of some their past errors and tabloidisation, regular readers of RTE.ie are probably even more aware of such. The online news section should not to be confused with the general RTE News, which is a different operation.

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