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Matthew Franklin’s having a bad ‘scare’ day

First he confidently predicted that Julie Bishop was safe in his piece in this morning’s Australian Bishop retains Turnbull backing only to have her quit her Shadow Treasurer role within hours.  His opening sentence “Liberal frontbencher Julie Bishop looks safe as the Opposition's Treasury spokeswoman in the short term, despite widespread concern among her colleagues over her performance”  was not as smart as Chris Uhlmann’s assessment on ABC 774 Melbourne radio that if your leader insists that you’re doing a great job and has every confidence in you, you’re soon for the chop.

Then he writes a front page piece Rudd accused of plagiarising quotes titled Questions on wording in Rudd essay in the online version, where he shows a ‘stunning resemblance’ between one of Rudd’s passages in his essay in The Monthly and an article published by Roger C Altmann a month earlier.  Rudd does not quote the earlier article, he quotes the same quotes from French President Sarkozy and Chinese Premier Wang Qishan as does Altmann, both quotes in both articles being correctly attributed.  Franklin doesn’t seem to realize that any number of authors use the same quotes; it’s whether they are attributed properly that counts.  It’s ludicrous for a senior journalist to imply that not only must the original quotes be attributed, but also others who have used the same quotes.  That such an inconsequential article could be written by the paper’s ‘Chief political correspondent’ and pass the paper’s editor suggests that substance is unimportant so long as a spurious political jibe is made.  If you’ve the stomach to read the whole sorry piece, it’s here.

  

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4 COMMENTS

Ad astra reply

17/02/2009Has anyone heard anything more about Rudd's 'plagiarism' as per Franklin's piece? No sign of it on the news or TV in Melbourne, and I saw nothing in the online papers today. Looks like he and [i]The Australian[/i] has tried to launch a lead balloon, but maybe Julie Bishop will try to get her own back when parliament resumes, with her yellow highlighted sheets of text.

janice

18/02/2009I've not heard so much a whisper Ad astra. It was a shot in the dark by a blindfolded journo.

Ad astra reply

18/02/2009I've not heard a whisper either janice. I hope you're well clear of the NSW floods.

janice

18/02/2009No prospect of flooding here Ad astra. The Hunter only does flood damage down the line a bit around Maitland etc. There has been local flooding from the creeks which empty themselves into the Hunter eventually but this time around we've not had enough rain to cause any local flooding.

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