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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

So MNHQ, what do YOU think about the jounos coming on here and hiding who they are to get article quotes

30 replies

FabBakerGirlIsBack · 17/06/2009 19:54

It is one thing to quote MN but quite another to write an article and pretend they have written it and have had the experiences.

OP posts:
HecatesTwopenceworth · 17/06/2009 19:55

That DM article?

Yup. Stinks, doesn't it?

I would love to know if they are happy with what they do. I mean, they must be totally shit at their jobs if they can't cobble together an article on their own!

HolyGuacamole · 17/06/2009 19:55

watching thread, good question.

CacklingandBarking · 17/06/2009 19:58

What DM article? What have I missed?

foxinsocks · 17/06/2009 20:01

we should have more licence to scream TROLL

I am always suspicious when a thread pops up like that and it's started by someone who hasn't posted before

imagine if we had screamed troll at her and hounded her out

would have been a far more interesting article

FrontRowFig · 17/06/2009 20:03

AND the telegraph one abotu people married to the bike

FrontRowFig · 17/06/2009 20:03

JOurnalist was EMily Cook - mn name " cucci"

not very bright,

funnypeculiar · 17/06/2009 20:04

missed the latest - link to dm article please (not something I often say...)

foxinsocks · 17/06/2009 20:05

let's see if we can find a picture of her

CacklingandBarking · 17/06/2009 20:05

What has happened? I am a regular, just name changed (was Imoverhere but had a crazy couple of weeks and cackling seemed more appropriate) not a journalist.

Itsjustafleshwound · 17/06/2009 20:07

Bit hard, when some of the talk round-ups are sponsored by 'The Telegraph' ...

Perhaps the thing to do would be for the journalist to be honest about her sources ...

FrontRowFig · 17/06/2009 20:07

I think YOu will be able to find EC foxy

funnypeculiar · 17/06/2009 20:08

OK, EC found. Need more help with dm one please.

squeaver · 17/06/2009 20:15

Well she certainly shouldn't be wearing that length of skirt with flats with her calves.

LupusinaLlamasuit · 17/06/2009 20:53

Yes, I'd quite like an answer from MNHQ to this question also.

  1. It is plagiarism. We have given YOU permission to quote us freely, but not visiting journos
  1. It is unethical not to ask for consent from those who you are quoting. The jury is out still on whether it is illegal for social researchers, even on a public site, for example in gathering health information. I posted a link on this in a discussion on breastfeeding research just the other day. Few people agree that it is unethical or possibly harmful but I think it is worth having the debate
  1. It is going to change the tone of the commentary people make if they suspect journalists deliberately posting to generate debate.

Not on really. Is it possible to ban them? Would you wish to? I would but I'm not running the site.

Original poster
FabBakerGirlIsBack · 18/06/2009 08:03

They should at least pay.

They are getting paid for writing an article which they are lifting from here to a bigger degree than is right or fair.

OP posts:
Swedes · 18/06/2009 08:09

Cucci? Emily Cook? What thread? Where?

hereidrawtheline · 18/06/2009 08:17

I'm not a paid journalist - I write a blog under the Independent's banner. I just wanted to say that on my thread in politics asking for submissions to my blog wrt the BNP I made it really clear I would quote the submissions (that being the whole point) without using any names. But I do not use MN for material for my blog other than that one instance. And I am a very long time poster. I must stress I dont get paid! And I think a journalist getting paid to write an article that was basically written for them on a forum is complete crap. I dont understand how they can let themselves do it, I would feel totally ashamed of myself if I couldnt do my own job.

Also a quick apology to some friends who I emailed who are also MNers - I sent out an email to direct people who I thought would be genuinely interested to the BNP thing and my silly email account goofed up - it seemed to send multiples to some people and none at all to others. So I have no real way of knowing who got the email and who was annoyed with more than one. So please accept my apology, I do not ever send spam out - this was something I wrote with my name on it that I was sending out to benefit what I thought everyone on my email list would agree was a worthy cause. I was really annoyed when I found out the email had been duplicated to some and not sent at all to others so I wont bother doing that again.

So back to the issue at hand - all of this is such murky waters wrt privacy laws and the internet, the internet is such a lawless place. If they were lifting out of say, Heat magazine it would be illegal.

UnquietDad · 18/06/2009 11:37

There was a huge controversy last year about the author of the "Torchwood" guide lifting reviews from livejournal. He was perectly within his rights to do so - the extracts were used within the terms of "fair use" and were attributed.

Several uppity little junior lawyers with livejournal blogs bounced up and down and got indignant about it, but really it was so much hot air.

NorbertDentressangle · 18/06/2009 11:46

Re: Emma Cook/bike thread (which I posted on) can I just ask why we think cucci is Emma Cook as the Telegraph article didn't appear to use any info from the thread?

I've seen some very obvious examples of journalists using info gleaned from MN before but I didn't think this was one of them TBH.

(better go and read the article again in case I've missed something glaringly obvious..)

OhBling · 18/06/2009 11:51

It's a public forum - you write things on here, people can use it. I honestly don't understand these periodic complaints about journalists trawling through forums like this for story ideas and quotes. IMO, by putting something on a public forum on the internet, if someone wants to use it, they can. It should reflect that it's the comment of OhBling [polific MN poster with a GSOH preferably ] but as long as it doesn't credit my [brilliant] posts to someone else OR try desperately to figure out who I am and write that in their story, I think journalists are well within their rights.

Disclaimer: I haven't seen the stories so I'm not sure how they're done in this case.

DidEinsteinsMum · 18/06/2009 11:57

found kids smoke cars

a little about this one as it is almost identical to a link i posted on one thread. here
It wasn't even new research

Its interesting that she doesn't have a profile page so can't check when she joined. It seems these articles appear when news is slow. Shame she has to resort to it. Some of the articles are well writen.

DidEinsteinsMum · 18/06/2009 11:59

Interestingly - i found these links on Daily Mirror not telegraph.

DidEinsteinsMum · 18/06/2009 12:19

bike - i could have writen this from my experience and never read that thread. Most people who have partners involved in the london-to-brighton ride understand this. It is coming up very shortly and a major deal in brighton (never got it personally)

Ok double checked date of my posting and article - she is exhonerated there her article was dated 20th May and I post 29th

DidEinsteinsMum · 18/06/2009 12:38

Kids smoke cars was an in the news thing not a chat things so

Sorry

madwomanintheattic · 18/06/2009 12:46

sinteresting though....

mnhq do have that disclaimer at the top forbidding quotes usage etc

but it is a public site and you don't have to have registered to view, so association of internet researchers current musings would suggest ethically it's a free for all...

polite to ask, but frankly not a real biggie