The newly reformed Ross Gittins

See, optimism about the human condition is justified after all. A little encouragement really can prompt even the lowest wretches to lift their game, as Ross Gittins, patron saint of the shallow and formerly a prime advocate of using others' words without attribution, has done in today's Silly. It is the usual Gittins drek and he gets any pretense at originality out of the way in the first few paragraphs -- original if you haven't tuned in to the ABC since the recent election.

What a [Coalition] to-do list: sack econocrats guilty of having worked with the enemy, pass an edict against climate change and discourage all discussion of it, stop publicising boat arrivals, build more motorways, move to a cut-price national broadband network and take science for granted.

After that, the column is largely composed of cut-and-paste quotes from chapter seven of this document, whose author Doctor Sticky Fingers rightly acknowledges.

And that is why we should all take heart. Even though Gittins borrowed almost an entire earlier column from an OECD report, and despite the fact that his Silly editors ruled that he had done no wrong, he has now taken it upon himself to change his ways and give credit where all but senior Fairfax executives would think it due.

 

See, even the worst of us aren't entirely beyond a small measure of redemption. 

Two For The Road

MRS RINEHART has moved mountains of dirt in her mining career, so sweeping the sludge from Fairfax newsrooms will be a piece of cake -- especially as some who should top any necks-for-the-axe list appear eager to execute their own swan dives into the soon-to-be proprietor's gully trap. Showing the way is Ross Gittins, who has said:

“The independence of Fairfax is the most valuable commercial asset and could be easily lost if no sufficient respect was paid to protect the freedom of journalists as reporters to report without fear or favour, and as commentators to call it as they see it. I’m not particularly keen on the idea of anybody telling me what I’m allowed to say about the mining industry."

Asked what would happen if no guarantee was forthcoming, Gittins replied: “I would have to reconsider my position.”

 There is one of those 1900 jobs that won't need to be cut by fiat. And here, possibly, is another: Silly Readers Editrix Judy Prisk admits to a flutter in her matronly breast at being reminded of a newspaper in America whose staff voted to put it out of business rather than be saved by Rupert Murdoch.

The story that so moved Ms Prisk is here and should be a source of comfort to all sensible Australians. It is not just our own precious luvvies who exist in that special little world where, the more people decline to buy their journalism, the louder grow their assertions of its magnificence.

Gittins and Prisk should make a nice matched pair as they clean out their desks. Some months ago, Gittins was caught cold borrowing the vast bulk of his column with, at best, oblique attribution. Having been called to account, his exoneration was then justified by Prisk.

They will look just the perfect pair marching out the door in lockstep.

Robert Manne Writes...

WHILE traipsing about the countryside last week, terrorising fish and cadging soft beds off rustic friends, a note from Bundoora Bob lobbed in the letterbox:

Bunyip,
You seem intelligent if rather, hmmm, right-wing. Did you realise that I have written an extensive comment on the subject of Keith Windschuttle and Robert Edgerton? It is available via The Monthly website. Indeed it has been available there for years. So far not one Windschuttle supporter has commented on it. Nor of course has Windschuttle, who refuses me the opportunity to write about his egregious articles on Aboriginal history in Quadrant, a magazine I edited for eight years. My challenge to you, Bunyip, is to read my Windschuttle/Edgerton analysis and then offer your views. I wait your response with keen anticipation. -- Robert Manne

Alas, Robert, you will be waiting a little longer - and it will not be, as you suggested in a subsequent note, because censorship is the policy at the Billabong. While it will come as a surprise, the reference to your tussle with Windschutle was not primarily about you or, indeed, the current Quadrant editor. Both of you are big boys and can duke it out amongst yourselves -- although Windschuttle may be at something of a disadvantage in that the news and opinion pages of the Fairfax press do not put themselves immediately at his disposal, as they appear to do with you.

Just to recap, the point of the post was to note the different tacks Fairfax takes when investigating accusations of plagiarism. When Ross Gittins, one of its own, lifts and borrows, Fairfax rationalises with an enthusiasm that puts the wiliest Jesuit to shame. When it is a demon of the right on the receiving end, sim-salah-bim, it is on the front page before the author can say "I'm off to edit The Drum".

Robert, there is much pain in this cruel world, and the Professor has no desire to boost its volume by denying you the attention to which, conditioned by ABC and Fairfax's feting, you have come to regard as your due. So, Bob, what about a bargain? Your counterpunch at Windschuttle will get a good look at the Billabong if you undertake to give an opinion on Ross Gittins' plagiarism and his deputy editor's defence of it. The respective analyses will be published on each other's websites and there will be no censoring of reader comments. (Only salty language is censored here, by the way.)

What could be fairer? Gittins is one of your statist allies, and the Professor is kindly disposed to Windschuttle. Let this be an interesting exercise in dispassionate analysis.

The Original and The Blessed

IN TODAY's Silly, the ever-original Ross Gittins addresses intellectual property and patent litigation, an interesting subject and, a quick check suggests, all his own work. Still, one wonders if this little sentence found its way into his column by way of Freudian slip:

...people like me won't be trying very hard to come up with new ideas

(Update will be posted shortly. Washing machine is unbalanced and shaking itself to pieces.....Load rebalanced and now hung on the line.)

UPDATE: Quite a bit of mail built up in the Billabong’s letterbox over the past two weeks, but this note and associated correspondence is easily the most fascinating item to emerge so far. It was passed along by a reader who reports having contacted the Silly’s readers editor, Judy Prisk, to ask what action her newspaper would be taking in regard to Ross Gittins’ cutting and pasting. Here is her response:

...Senior editors are looking at points raised about Ross Gittins's column. You will hear from me - or someone - soon.

Thanks again for your letter,
Judy

Judy Prisk
Readers' editor
readersed@smh.com.au

The Billabong’s correspondent waited until, eventually, he received this reply from the Silly’s deputy editor Mark Coultan. As an indication of the delusional depths to which the broadsheet Fairfax newspapers have sunk it is most revealing:

Thank you for your email regarding the recent column by Ross Gittins.

We do not agree readers would have been in any doubt that Ross’s article was about the OECD report and that he quoted from it extensively throughout, both directly and by paraphrasing.

Ross cited the OECD and the title of its report clearly at the start of his article and quoted directly from it in many places. Other markers throughout the article, including the conditional tense and references such as ‘‘the report asks’’, ‘‘we’re told that’’ and ‘‘the purpose of reports like this’’, make it absolutely clear that the report is the thrust of the entire article and that Ross is referring to it throughout.

Nevertheless we appreciate you having taken the time to draw your concerns to our attention.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Coultan

Deputy Editor

Now you might think no newspaper could do no worse than redefine plagiarism in order to establish a star columnist's innocence. But there is worse, as the Billabong's correspondent advises after checking Judy Prisk's tweets.

Remember, Prisk is the Silly's watchdog, the sentry charged with protecting its standards and enforcing its ethics.

Oh, and by the way, it is not just a Right Wing Death Bunyip who finds Prisk's performance more than somewhat lacking. Mumbrella is less than impressed as well.

A Thief With Friends In High Places

WHILE ON the road and in the bush last week, irregular connectivity made keeping in touch with the modern world rather difficult, although the one spot where the signal was strong did produce the not-altogether-surprising news that Fairfax economics editor Ross Gittins is a thief. As it would have been difficult to blog and moderate comments while loping through the greenery, word of Gittins’ plagiarism was passed to Professor Sinclair Davidson, who posted proof of the light-fingered columnist’s disgraceful ways. After that, the quest for fish and solitude drew the Professor deeper into Victoria’s sylvan fastness, where thoughts turned often amid the casting, catching and cooking to the conversations that must surely have been proceeding on the executive upper floors at Fairfax World Headquarters.

Apparently that was indeed the case, but being Fairfax the official response to yet another in-house travesty is typically confused. Gittins’ column appears this morning – or rather, one version appears in the Silly and another, rather different one in the Age. In the Silly, the second paragraph reads thus:

What follows is my account of his paper for the Melbourne Institute, The Dutch Disease in Australia: Policy Options for a Three-Speed Economy. As is often my custom, it will consist largely of direct quotes, indirect quotes and paraphrases of his paper. This practice is known as ''reporting''. If I misreport his views, feel free to criticise; but don't be silly and accuse me of stealing them.

In the Age, however, that same paragraph has gone walkabout, vanished without a trace. In its place, readers find this:

What follows is my account of his paper for Melbourne Institute, The Dutch Disease in Australia. Corden is an expert on Dutch disease — a situation in which a boom in one export industry leads to an appreciation in the exchange rate, which reduces the profitability and the output of other export and import-competing industries.

So what transpired when Gittins met with his masters to discuss the derivative approach to quality journalism? For want of an official explanation, it appears Fairfax has decided to cut Gittins quite a lot of slack, the Silly even going so far as to publish his defence of the indefensible.

But what of the Age? Did the editors at Melbourne’s broadsheet conclude their readers did not need to be told of Gittins' transgressions, even via the indirect acknowledgement  of a self-serving and ludicrous “explanation”? Or could it be – and this seems most unlikely – that the paper concluded Gittins’ defence of theft was so tenuous and absurd it should not be published at all?

But make no mistake: Gittins’ continued presence in the Fairfax press, a presence not even qualified with an official explanation, says more about Fairfax than it does of the columnist. Apart from demonstrating the media group’s cowardice in declining to hold a star writer -- OK, agreed, it is a very dim firmament --  to account, it showcases a telling inconsistency in that company’s approach to the conduct of its editorial affairs.

It seems some people can be done over on the front page for alleged plagiarism. But others’ crimes, if their opinions are of the right sort, must be swept under the rug.

There will be more on this element of the Gittins fiasco in a subsequent post, but not just yet. The Professor’s hostess is hauling hot scones from her oven. First things first, and especially with raspberry jam.