Intellectual dishonesty is pure poison – A Crikey weblog

Category Archives: The Age

It’s a story about a bride allegedly faking cancer so people would donate to her “dream wedding”: why embellish?

April 11, 2012 – 8:37 am

The Age does understand that being charged with a crime is not the same as being found guilty of a crime, right? Suddenly I have my doubts: The US state attorney general’s office announced that Jessica Vega, 25, had been indicted on charges of fraud and grand larceny for getting her “dream wedding” by falsely [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Comments (1)

Penguin “benefactor” not all that “benefactor-y”.

March 25, 2012 – 9:19 am

A weird one in this morning’s Age: That sounds like the bloke paid $250k to improve the situation for the penguins, doesn’t it? But that doesn’t seem to be what happened.

By Jeremy Sear | Also posted in Cameron Houston, Posted | Comments (4)

Fortunately I didn’t pay for it

February 5, 2012 – 11:55 am

The sort of inanities The Age is publishing between bouts of vacuous “leadership speculation”: A city divided Which side of the Yarra you live on speaks volumes – or does it? Natalie Craig finds out. Welcome to the Hotel California, you can check it out any time, but you won’t be pleased IT sits next [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Also posted in Jason Dowling, Natalie Craig, Posted | Comments (2)

He has annoyed large media companies. He must be crushed.

January 23, 2012 – 12:46 pm

The arrest and pending extradition to the US of MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom in Auckland over the weekend is a handy reminder to Australians as well as New Zealanders that when the US passes overly-punitive copyright or other pro-big-business laws as demanded by lobbyists of their bought-and-paid-for politicians (against whom we cannot vote at all, [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Also posted in Glenda Kwek, Posted | Comments (4)

Understanding The World Of The Subeditor

January 20, 2012 – 10:08 am

A new series at Pure Poison, where in an effort to include silly media quibbles that amuse us but don’t technically qualify as “intellectual dishonesty”, we explore them as shedding light on the shadowy world of the unknown but influential newspaper subeditor. Today’s episode: How to avoid confusing headline-skimming obituary readers Overheard at a fictional [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Also posted in Posted | Comments (19)

Slow news day at The Age?

January 13, 2012 – 3:54 pm

I know it’s Summer, and a Friday at that, but was a man swimming in the wrong lane really the biggest story in Melbourne? ALBERT Park local Peter Baker was completing his regular swim at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre yesterday, when he suddenly felt the surge of an obviously strong swimmer – one [...]

By Dave Gaukroger | Comments (3)

Humans went to the Moon when, Jane?

January 12, 2012 – 12:47 pm

Dear The Age, If you’re going to publish a story combining the nerd-friendly topics of space travel and Lego, “Blockhead won’t Lego of his childhood dream”, please don’t get one of the most important dates in human history wrong: Who’s the “blockhead” now? The first human Moon landing (“delivery” of “humans to the Moon”) was, [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Also posted in Jane Lee, Posted | Comments (15)

Classy As Ever #2: The Age’s lolsuicide

January 10, 2012 – 11:43 am

The Age recognised that its story today about a Polish prosecutor shooting himself in the head at a press conference raised some delicate issues. It included the following note in the story: * Support is available for anyone who may be distressed by calling Lifeline 131 114, Mensline 1300 789 978, Kids Helpline 1800 551 [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Also posted in Posted | Comments (13)

If this were Watergate, News Ltd would be attacking the journalists for daring to expose Nixon

December 15, 2011 – 3:49 pm

The ALP, continuing to be embarrassed by the Age’s devastating expose on the personal details on voters it holds (with very little security), has – as we’ve previously discussed – attempted to deflect attention by claiming to the police that the real story is how the journalists had been able to expose the ALP by [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Also posted in News Ltd., Padraic Murphy, Posted | Comments (14)

If they’re looking for more mockable reader comments with which to replace doing actual journalism, may we direct Fairfax to our C&P thread?

October 25, 2011 – 12:55 pm

I’m beginning to see why Fairfax isn’t charging for online content yet. Here it is, going for seconds on the “young bloke mooned the Queen” ‘story’: Mother country angry over Aussie ‘mooning’ Queen …English tabloid The Daily Mail reported on the incident, labelling Mr Warriner “remorseless”. The article drew a furious reaction from its readers. [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Also posted in Posted | Comments (41)