A new entrant for the award is The Sun’s new “The Whip” column, (which looks a bit like a blog and asks readers to email tips…) Living up to their name, they whipped Recess Monkey’s story about Andrew Rosindell’s dead dog Spike, the day after it appeared on his blog.
Copyright 2005 NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTD The Sun, June 8
I HADN’T heard of Lee Scott before, but the new Tory MP for Ilford North might well be a miracle worker with hidden powers. He boasted in his maiden speech of the support he had, when campaigning, from Andrew Rosindell, Romford MP, and his dog Spike. Poor Spike, he died on St George’s Day in 2002.
Not quite word-for-word, but near enough, the copyright notice takes the biscuit. Bobbie Johnson, writing in The Guardian’s webwatch column, rightly notes that Recess and Guido are getting pissed off with plagiarism from press diarists, especially if they don’t give credit. Without, incidentally, tactfully mentioning that the Guardian’s own diarists are front runners for our award.
To be fair, many press journalists do give credit, Alan Connor at the BBC and Ros Taylor at the Guardian always give us a link as well. Some just buy us a drink(s), but its the ones who nick the story without attribution who really annoy. We will have our revenge.
The Whip (and others) can withdraw their entries by merely sending a bottle of Margaux using the handy online facility – just click on the box in the right-hand column.
