The Copy Editor
We cannot expect much when public officials are content to copy.
Many of those who make it to high office in government do so for reasons quite apart from the quality of the mind. Never mind brilliance, some of them don’t even have common sense. This is what we get when popularity determines who gets elected, and when patronage rules the appointments to public office.
MG Seigler, in a follow-up piece to the tweet below that made the copy-paste and rewrite natives rather restive:
@marcoarment I used to love to plant one really weird bit of random information (sometimes even false) into stories to catch the rewrites.
— MG Siegler (@parislemon) July 5, 2012
My story at ABS-CBNNews.com published Saturday:
Yin said Chinese naval troops should board and search Philippine government ships and private fishing vessels.
He said this is already being done by the Philippines on Chinese fishing ships.
Yin said the “Philippines has not yet returned 24 Chinese fishing boats it is holding,” referring to Chinese boats intercepted in Philippine territory in October last year.
Yin, who is described by the CNS as a military expert, said Chinese troops “must try to maintain restraint, not force, not hurt people,” when going after Philippine ships found in waters near or at Scarborough shoal.
He said Chinese government ships should conduct more regular patrols in the waters off Scarborough to ensure the safety of Chinese fishing boats.
Yin told Communist Party publication the People’s Daily on Thursday that China’s navy will not hesitate to use deadly force against its enemies.
“Our navy has the absolute ability and the absolute confidence to use arms to defend our country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and maritime rights. We’re just waiting for the order,” he said.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s story today that copied entire blocks of text from my story:
The CNS report quoted Yin as saying Chinese naval troops should board and search Philippine government ships and private fishing vessels.
He said this was already being done by the Philippines on Chinese fishing ships.
Yin said the “Philippines has not yet returned 24 Chinese fishing boats it is holding,” referring to Chinese boats intercepted in Philippine territory in October last year.
Yin, described by CNS as a military expert, said Chinese troops “must try to maintain restraint, not force, not hurt people” when going after Philippine ships found in waters near Scarborough Shoal.
But he told the Communist Party publication People’s Daily on Thursday that China’s Navy would not hesitate to use deadly force against its enemies.
“Our Navy has the absolute ability and the absolute confidence to use arms to defend our country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and maritime rights,” Yin said. “We’re just waiting for the order.”
There’s fair use but PDI should have at least rewritten the story instead of making it appear like they copy-pasted from ABS-CBNNews.com.
I’ve informed the PDI about the issue and here’s their reply:
@JojoMalig Referred your concern to the Ombudsman @nenyp
— Inquirer Group (@inquirerdotnet) June 25, 2012
