Sporting Madness

This is a bit of a continuation of my post on anonymity the other day, focusing on the mainstream media's relationship with the blogosphere. One of the big stories this week was about New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd apparently lifting a paragraph [ Craig Silverman , Regret The Error ] from Talking Points Memo writer Josh Marshall via a shady friend ( Alex Rodriguez 's cousin , perhaps?) and then apologizing for it afterwards. To Dowd's credit, she's been much more apologetic than certain other plagiarists , but her inclusion of a paragraph word-for-word from a friend without any mention that it wasn't her original work is still very troubling. The Dowd situation is just one extreme example of a larger problem, though. One of the things that's troubled me for a long time is the indifference shown by many traditional media outlets towards proper citation of others' work. A particularly egregious recent example comes from that noted bastion of journ...

Much has happened since my initial post last week about the rumours of the Indiana Pacers potentially moving to Vancouver. The story's spread everywhere from CTV to Newsday to the Indianapolis Business Journal , with many sites claiming there's nothing behind it. Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini , the rumoured potential buyer of the team from current owners Herb and Mel Simon , gave a very interesting statement to CTV, though, saying he has "no immediate interest in purchasing an NBA basketball team." That's a pretty weak denial, especially considering the "immediate" part. Prospective owners of sports franchises rarely make their interest known publicly well in advance, particularly when relocation is involved. Moreover, the initial report stated that any deal was at a very early stage, so Aquilini could be telling the complete truth here and still purchase an NBA franchise a month down the road (if he had immediate interest then). As I ...