Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Hey Mr. Palmer, I Thought 'Bloggers' Just Made Stuff Up...


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Update, Feb 25th, 2010: Today, Vaughn Palmer did the bare minimum to correct his previous failure to cite the work of Blogger and 'Freelancer' Laila Yuile when he tagged the following passage to the end of his follow-up column:

"....The full judgment in Tercon Contractors vs. B.C. ministry of transportation and highways is available through the website of the Supreme Court of Canada. I also thank freelance writer Laila Yuile for drawing this case to my attention....”

I'll have more to say about this later, mainly by juxtaposing it to a very different acknowledgement of another local Blogger's work by one of Mr. Palmer's VSun stablemates....

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Well, whadd'ya know....

Vaughn Palmer just woke up and smelled the bid-rigging coffee in British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell's Ministry of Pavement.

The following is Mr. Palmer's latest lede, and only his lede, because we wouldn't want to be accused of stealing his stuff:

"The provincial transportation ministry lost a big case recently when the Supreme Court of Canada condemned its "egregious conduct" in steering a major highways contract to an ineligible bidder, then trying to cover up what it had done.

The high court upheld an earlier, no-less-damning finding from the B.C. Supreme Court regarding the $25-million contract to build a new road through Nisga'a territory in the Nass Valley in northwestern B.C.

The court record documented a series of decisions by officials that together undermined the integrity of the ministry's own bidding process as well as its broader obligations, as a public institution, to fairness and transparency....."


It's a detailed, well-researched column that is important and well worth reading.

But here's the thing.

If you, like I, have been paying attention, you've read it all, and more, before.

Over at our good friend Laila Yuile's place.

So.

Given that, how come we don't see Laila's name anywhere in Mr. Palmer's column?

Huh?

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8 comments:

West End Bob said...

Silly boy, RossK, the answer's in your post title!

'Bloggers' just made stuff up of course.

Why would a "real" journalist credit someone who just makes stuff up?

As you yourself would say: Sshhheeessshhhh* . . . .

*Might have the spelling slightly incorrect.

Grant G said...

Thanks Ross..Palmer has been "borrowing" stories for sometime now.

I know that for fact!

Cheers-Eyes Wide Open

RossK said...

Bob and Grant--

According to new developments detailed in the comment thread attached to Laila's latest about the Tercon decision, Mr. Palmer now plans to give due credit in his follow-up column.

When, and if, that occurs we will give him the due credit that decision deserves, very much the same as we did when Ian Mulgrew gave full and generous credit to BC Mary's digging on the Bains decision last year.

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RossK said...

Update....Thursday Feb 25th...Mr. Palmer's follow-up column is now up...He has done the bare minimum to correct his previous omission (see update at the top of this post).

The fact that he did so is important. However, 'what' he actually did (and didnt' do) is important also - I'll have more to say on that later.

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Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

Does this mean Vaughn Palmer might one day cite Mr. Beer N. Hockey in a future column about the elusive fourteen foot tall beaver?

BC Mary said...

Palmer just couldn't bring himself to thank a blogger, could he.

Sure she's a free lancer; but also a well-known blogger ... just like him.

RossK said...

What the heckfire you talkin' 'bout Beer....I thought it was you who told him about The Pointed Sticks.


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Mary--

Could it be that Mr. Palmer didn't want anyone to actually go looking for Laila's stuff online?...After all, if they did, well, they might discover that she's had this story nailed down for weeks.




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(and, just for the record, I really dig it when two of my favorite bloggers, folks that have essentially nothing else in common except a penchant for truth telling, end up on the same comment thread....now that's what I call all killer with no filler!)

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RossK said...

Darn.

Just realized I should have said 'four of my favorite bloggers on one thread'.

Sorry 'bout that.

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