Dumb Authors #2348

[rodo]

Remember a while back when I complained about dumb authors? I'm referring to this part:

• Look at the pictures you're describing. Or use your common sense. The picture shows a polar bear and a seal, not polar bear and a penguin.

The offensive passage was part of an article about a photographer I am writing an essay about. And because I just noticed that I missed a citation, I went back and googled him. And what do I find? An article in Zeit online, which describes the same photo making the same mistake. It was a long, obviously well researched article, but seriously, right now, I am weeping for the future of journalism.

And no matter how often I look at the picture, I still see seal.


So please, dear authors:

When copying someone elses work, make sure you don't copy the mistakes!


I learnt that in school, which is why I ended up with a 2 in the physics test and sevilemar, whose answers I copied, only got a 4.

TBC

Comments

[eumelkeks.insanejournal.com]

I always ended up with a 4 in physics, no matter what I did. *lol*

But point taken. I see that a lot, especially when the original source is in another language. BILD and the like just copy and paste whatever someone else translated.

[sevilemar.insanejournal.com]

Oh yes, I remember... I was a little pissed at you, wasn't I? Well, anyway, that was long ago. But yes, if I remember correctly it ist one of the first things you learn in Journalistik. But why should anyone listen to those people, anyway?

[rood.insanejournal.com]

Poor you, my brother's class had a teacher who would give every girl at least a 3, because it's not her fault, women just can't understand physics. Not a very nice attitude, but useful. I simply repeated everything the teacher said, without understanding it at all. Worked, somehow, most of the time.

But unfortunately, ZEIT is not BILD. It's respectable journalism. I even know the editor in charge, he taught one of my journalism courses.