Romenesko and Poynter

See, this is the key to me.

"Plagiarism," in the negative way we use it -- I guess there's really no other way to use it -- implies somebody lifting somebody else's work and passing it off as their own with the intent to deceive.

With Romenesko, there was never a single question about what he was doing, and none of the people whose work was being "lifted" minded at all, at least that I'm aware of. In fact, almost all of them were flattered.

Yeah, Dan, he randomly mixed direct quotes and paraphrases, and everybody knew he was doing it, and it was part of the deal. To call him on it is, I'll agree with others, an academic exercise.

To me, it's the difference between stealing a base, and stealing a base because of catcher indifference, to use a kind of inside-out, backward analogy.

 

He should have used quote marks all the time, and should have been told to early on. Why didn't at Poynter anyone notice? And why didn't Poynter do the posting? (Perhaps the third question answers the second.) Romenseko has been the go-to source for industry gossip while at Poynter, and now will be away from Poynter.

 

Like most things, I figure this was somehow about money.

Possible scenario:

Poynter urged Romensko to not accept industry advertising on his new site, fearing an outflow of ad dollars from their site. (This part is true.)

Failing that, Poynter undertakes an effort to damage Romensko's brand. (This part is wild-assed speculation.)

 

Ding ding ding. Someone ought to track the ads on what is now "Mediawire" against the new Romenesko site when it goes full-speed.

 

No more reason to visit that monument to lame nonsense

Collection of navel-gazing posted there now about their internal disagreement about Jim is as valuable as used crankcase oil.

 

They're going to be able to use one of those deli Take-A-Number dispensers to count their page views.

 

What is this "new site" that you mention here?

 

. . . like, where we can go, to read a Jim unfettered by dolts . . .

 

Thanks for posting that.

 

Julie Moos can bite me.