occasionally acerbic, cultural and political comment
This is why I said earlier that the Republican Party is scum. They had a president who sucked up to Christian fundamentalists, who was financially reckless and ran a foreign policy so bad his only supporters now are nutjobs like Melanie Phillips and her counterparts in the USA (Mark Steyn, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Bill O Reilly etc).
My thoughts can be found in the comments.
Sphere: Related ContentThe thing is, he says all this without laughing. Astonishing.
via. Oliver Willis
Sphere: Related ContentIs anyone actually surprised that at least one Lonely Planet guide hasn’t actually visited the places he’s written about? Have you ever followed a Lonely Planet guide? I picked up one for Russia, and found it completely unhelpful, as most of the tips on culture turned out to be well-worn clichés and had little in common with reality. Utter tosh.
Anyway, It seems that one of LP’s writers, one Thomas Kohnstamm, has admitted to plagiarising travel websites and brochures to complete his commissions. Plagiarising is of course becoming increasingly popular, with students being caught handing in Copy and Pasted work as their own. Indeed, I have discovered a new start-up site that has ripped-off whole chunks of text from other sites.
The people behind the site don’t seem to understand the awesome power of the google. I suppose some people would ask what’s the problem? Well, it all depends on whether you portray yourself as a serious venture. Serious content providers don’t rip-off material. It’s all well and good having fancy business cards and pretending to be a big player, when you evidently lack any creative talent. You just look like amateur wannabes. Never mind, not my concern.
Sphere: Related ContentI had a quick look at much-hyped Politics Home site, the brainchild of Stephan Shakespeare and Tim Montgomerie.
You’ll remember Shakespeare and Montgomerie from failed internet TV channel 18DoughtyStreet.
The “concept” of the site, apparently, is to become the ‘Bloomberg for Politics’. And I suppose the two sites do look similar (indeed one could argue that PH has ripped off Bloomberg). Another ex-18DoughtyStreet hack, Iain Dale has proclaimed its Bloomberg-mimicry a success: “It’s certainly that and then some.” However, as Dale suggests, the site is devoid of original content and relies on feed aggregation to populate its front page.
Bloomberg, for the record, has its own writers.
Two things…
Number One. We need another politics feed aggregator like we need Doughty Street’s acrylic plants back in our lives. Aren’t there enough twatting sites sucking content from other people? I wonder, if Stephan Shakespeare can actually get a return on PolHome (18DS haemorrhaged cash), will he share revenue with the people actually providing the guts to his site, or will it be another parasite feeding off the the RSS-teat of other content providers?
Number Two. Who needs a Bloomberg for politics? Business requires up to the minute information. Minutes lost can translate directly into lost revenues. Politics is an industry of wanky news items about MP’s tawdry sex lives and a never-ending conveyor belt of financial scandals. Politicos like to think they’re champions of the universe with ultra-busy lives, but in truth it wouldn’t matter a jot if most of them just fell off the planet.
It’s not case of whether one can build a Bloomberg for Politics, but whether one should?
Also, it’s a bit of a wreck. Yeah, it’s only a BETA, but it looks like a MySpace page built by a couple of Labradors. C’mon, where’s the class?
Sphere: Related ContentHave a play.
I would have been interested to see how some of the other non-English language dailies cover the globe.
More L’Observatoire des médias .
via. Jamie K
Liberal Conspiracy
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