Had a strange experience this afternoon. I was reading an editorial in one the national daily newspapers. It felt strangely familiar. Then I realised that it paraphrased a blog article I wrote yesterday on another blog. Same observations and argument. It didn't quite copy directly, although it wasn't far off in places. For example, my first line:
"After three years of rapidly rising unemployment, and 22 months after the government published 'Building Ireland’s Smart Economy – A Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal', it has finally set out a plan for job creation.".
It's second line:
'Coming as it does, after three years of rapidly rising unemployment, and 22 months after the Government published 'Building Ireland's Smart Economy -- A Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal', the initiative is not before its time.'
The government press release didn't mention the previous report or how long since it was published; I joined the dots and worked out the length of time and I ummed and ahhed about whether to use 21 or 22 months (it was published in Dec 2008). Nice to know that the post was worth lifting and rewriting, and I'm not too fussed about it, but is this what journalism has become, rehashing blog posts?
No comments:
Post a Comment