Time(s) to Vanish
Our latest Scissorhands post has had its effects. In less than four hours Labour’s rising star lost her place among the team of bloggers on the timesofmalta.com site. Nikita Alamango’s blog is no more. For posterity’s sake here are the before and after pics from the Times site. Thanks again to the Times for their predictable reaction. Don’t hold your breath for a scoop in the Times itself about Nikita’s exploits.
We’d like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. But hell, we ain’t sorry. These darn wankellectuals… they’re all over the place. Peace, love and happiness.
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Now you see me…
timesofmalta.com (around midday)
J’accuse butts in (what a pain in the arse)…
J'accuse (a short while after midday)
Now you don’t…
timesofmalta.com (teatime)
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Good riddance to bad rubbish.
A question: Why was Nikita Alamango “fired”, unlike David Casa, who you caught plagiarising more than once if memory serves me well?
Was/is David Casa employed by the Times?
No, but neither was Nikita. Usual two weights, two measures.
It’s not a case of “two weights, two measures”. As far as I recall, there was only one other case of outed plagiarism in the Times. It was an article by Pippo Psaila before the last general election and the fact that no other article of his appeared means that he was either to ashamed or the editor told him discreetly not to write again.
What is at issue is that the editor of the Sunday Independent cannot be arsed unless the contributor himself walks up to him and says: “Hey, I plagiarised”.
I may have a short memory, but I don’t remember you getting all righteous about David Agius’ copying or Pippo Psaila’s blatant plagiarism just before the election. And these are the PN whip and a PN general election candidate.
The joys of impartiality …..
Sigh! Here’s the end of the previous post to this one Gianni:
“The Par Condicio Moment: A simple note to pre-empt labour diehards. J’accuse reseves equal treatment to ALL plagiarisers. Especially those who purport to be the leaders of our nation. If you doubt us just search “Scissorhands” in our search box … you will see how we are true to our word.”
The joys of openmindedness…
Sigh! Sigh! and… Sigh!
I did, Malcolm – and as I said, there is nothing about Agius or Psaila.
And it’s Ganni not Gianni.
Well, when you have to deal with stupid then you deal with stupid. Ganni I am not PBS and don’t have the slightest obligation to be balanced in my treatment of politicians. I exposed plagiarism before and will go on to do it. If you have no idea how infinitely ridiculous you sound pointing fingers at previous instances of plagiarism as though it ill make the alamango FT gaffe vanish then I don’t think you can be cured.
I have no intention of defending David Agius, Pippo Psaila, Nikita Alamango or whatever other politician you may add to the list. Plagiarism when speaking to the public is the same for all of them. if you read this as some “blue or red” move then you can join the rest of the partisan crowd busy scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Let me spell this out. I don’t give a rats arse if it is laborite or nationalist doing the plagiarizing. What really pisses me off is the inability of idiots like you to stand up (oh the irony) and say that they will not be taken for a ride…. Whoever the perpetrator.
Yes j’accuse has always been biased – towards the truth. Pity no?
I have a long memory and I do not recall you ever outing the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as a plagiarised forgery. Or the “Donation of Constantine“. Shows your political prejudices. :p
Rene, why does what Nikita wrote constitute plagiarism please? You did NOT answer this question. An unloaded reply would be appreciated. I think we’re both after the same thing here. Truth.
Chris, the examples Jacques gave in the previous post do not need an explanation as to why they constitute plagiarism. But since you ask here it is.
Plagiarism is defined as:
“the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work, as by not crediting the author”
Now go back to Jacques post preceding this one, read Gillian Tett’s paragraphs and read Nikita’s and see for yourself if Nikita did “use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author” without giving credit. If you fail to see how this is plagiarism, we may safely assume that plagiarism does not exist.
Malcolm, thanks. But, as far as I can see Nikita does acknowledge that the numbered paragraphs are not her’s… Plus, in her article’s intro she did say that the article was a result of a survey of opinions.
So my conclusion would be as follows: she could have made the quotes clearer, granted. But it doesn’t seem that it was her intention to represent them as her own analyses… Indeed, if she did, then it would be a mistake since Nikita is not qualified for financial or economic analyses such as the ones copied.
As on whether The Times is justified in firing her, well, that’s another issue.
I don’t get this Chris. She mentions “a CNN piece” at the start… and then proceeds to comment the eurozone crisis in what the reader would assume to be her own take on the affair as inspired by the CNN piece. At no point is there a reference or mention to the Financial Times article. As for passing the content of as hers just look at the conclusion:
Nikita’s:
In all seriousness, I hope that a sultry summer will not result in an agitated autumn.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Gillian:
Will that turn a sticky summer into a turbulent autumn? And then produce a wintry “real economy” hit? I fervently hope not. But nobody can deny that there is a rising sense of déjà vu, to use a phrase from France, the core of the eurozone. The Gods of Finance might chuckle. Then weep.
Sorry Chris, but there is NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING of nikita’s in that article. Neither the facts nor the opinion on those facts. But of course the Times fired her because she’s a Labour party star no?
Just below the 5 bullet paragraphs she wrote, and I quote: “…It’s interesting to note that while some analysts, as we have seen above, …”
To me that is a clear indication that it was her intention to represents the five paragraphs as the opinions of other analysts.
As on whether NOTHING in Nikita’s article is her own work, I sincerely don’t know. But, it would seem that such a claim (for the text not in the bullet paragraphs), would require some further justification… Otherwise, everything could end up being plagiarism…
Well, in general, she needs to pay more attention to writing better articles. But one should perhaps argue of ignorance rather than evil on her part…
The Times would have fired her not because of her political associations, but because of the quality of the articles… Nonetheless, the quality and plagiarism aren’t the same thing. Neither are all cases of plagiarism the same. The intentional ones deserve harsh punishment. Others may deserve empathy :)
Well done for your blogging tho. I like it.
Shame on you… you never even told us that the story of Jesus was blatantly copied from Horus, one of the deities of ancient Egypt.