Thursday, March 16, 2006

When did Jayson Blair start a Detroit sports blog?

Addendum 3/18/06 - JG, the owner of Third and Five, came forward with an explanation in the comments. The site was a work in progress and was basically using TWFE as a template. The site was not yet ready for public view, not yet fully edited, but I stumbled upon it. I'm fine with his explanation, and welcome JG to the Detroit blogosphere with open arms. Consider the hatchet buried... Now change that intro, JG!

I had a bit of a surprise yesterday.

As I was preparing to call it a night, just as many of us do, I did a Technorati search on my blog to see who's linking to me, and search the subjects I've been writing about. In this case, "Jon Kitna." They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this caught me totally off guard. Click on the following pics for a better resolution.


Anything look even slightly familiar? Say the right sidebar?

Here's the intro for TWFE....

You really want to know? It's my uninformed and completely biased blatherings on Detroit sports. You may see the occasional pop culture rant and some lame attempts at humor. You have my apologies in advance. I do ask readers to remember one thing..."Ball don't lie."

Here's the intro for the doppelganger blog...

Uninformed and completely biased raves on sports. Tossed in the mixer is an occasional pop culture rant and some lame attempts at humor. For what it's worth, you have my apologies in advance. Readers are only asked to remember one statement that is oh-so-true..."Ball don't lie."

I don't know if I should laugh or be pissed. I'm feeling closer to pissed.

But it gets better.



He took my formating for links, and didn't even change the headline wording. Hell, he just copied my links, juggled the Detroit blog links around, and just decided not to bother altering the rest. I mean how many people link to both the Sports Frog and the Wayne Fontes Fan Club? So he goes to all that trouble, but he didn't bother to link to me? The blog he plagiarised from? Aren't I a valued member of the Detroit sports blog community too? What gives? I'm hurt. That's just bad form.

There is another piece of incriminating evidence. He actually has the nerve to take a pic from here, from this post on NHL scheduling. It's nowhere near a big deal, obviously, other than proof he's been to TWFE.


Taking the pic is nothing. Hell, it's just a pic I found on the web, but I'm positive he found it on TWFE. If you haven't noticed, each pic that appears on TWFE gets a specific name, usually in a joking reference to my post. In this case, it's named "where_the_nhl_rates_on_the_iq_chart." He didn't bother to change the pics name when he posted it to his blog. How Gil Grissom of me, eh?

Thing is, it looks like he put some thought into content. Why take all the shortcuts in regard to the formating and introduction? How hard is it to write your own intro and format your sidebar? It's one thing to look at other blogs for ideas, and make them yours. But plagiarism is not something I'm going to shrug off. I realize this isn't the scale of the Jayson Blair New York Times scandal, this is just a little blog that gets 40-50 visits on a good day. (Hey, it's over 80 visits today, cool!) But this is my little space of the web, and I'm going to protect it.

It was from reading the other local blogs (You all know who you are, as I've linked to you) that inspired me to jump in the blog waters with both feet. I've had a hella good time doing TWFE so far. 99.9% of the other fish in the Detroit blog pond have been über cool, and I've gotten wonderful feedback. I've even enjoyed getting called out, getting a little haterade, such as being designated a "Nattering Nabob of Negativity." That one made my day...

So I just wanted to get this out, as it was really bothering me. I hope whomever started the doppelganger blog makes the proper changes, as it'd be the right thing to do.

Tommorow it's back to Millen bashing, Leyland loving, Amaker questioning, and other general foolishness... Thanks for reading.

12 comments:

  1. Why didn't the guy link to me?? He's got everybody else off of your sidebar, but where am I? That is SO rude! If ou're going to copycat somebody, you have to copycat ALL of him.

    Sheesh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm still waiting to be plagiarized -- by someone other than Mitch Albom. (THAT'S quite a story I may share sometime).

    Eno

    ReplyDelete
  3. I appreciate everyone's suppport! And Eno, do tell us sometime...

    ReplyDelete
  4. It was a "You know you're a Lions fan when..." thing I did in summer 2004 that Kevin Antcliff kindly shared with Detroit sportswriters, including Albom.

    Well, lo and behold, that's the subject of Mitch's football column the first week of that season, with SEVERAL of my examples listed.

    Hmmm.....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Here's a link. Most of it is dumb drama, but the first two posts are the two stories.

    http://www.xlr8web.com/fanzone/showthread.php?t=6078&pp=10

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the info, Kevin!

    Eno, I'm impressed! The Little Fella only steals from...Uh, I mean...is inspired by the best.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey, no link ziti for me either! What gives, man?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ian,

    I find it hard to believe he left Kevin and yourself off of his links. What's up with that? There has to be an underlying reason. I'm guessing it's like a kid who copies a term paper and changes a couple of words. and then thinks, "That'll fool 'em!"

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Al:

    Read your post about the site Third and Five... I would just like to say that I am a reader of your blog (rss feed in feeddemon) and enjoy it.

    The blog in question was a work in-progress. I never thought it was being viewed by anyone really.

    The formatting/intro was going to change, I had just been slow with coming up with original content. As far as your links, I liked most of them and had been changing and adding links as I read more and more into each site.

    The blog was/is for personal use. I don't sell anything or promote anything. I just made it so that I could write sometimes when I feel I need to. I have also been trying to recruit a few of my friends to write stuff on non-sport related. I thought that would be neat.

    I don't proclaim to be a writer. I am a sports fanatic and I live in the metro detroit area. So, I sincerely apologize if I upset you by using your words.

    Hope we can make things right going forward.

    ReplyDelete
  10. JG,

    I appreicate your coming forward. I'm flattered that you enjoy the site. I was just taken aback when I stumbled upon Third and Five and saw what I took to be theivery. I've worked hard on the site and I felt I needed to defend my turf. I'm fine with your explanation.

    I'm no writer either, I just pretend to be one... I'm just a fan that wanted to have his voice heard. I see you have the same need. Consider the hatchet buried.

    I'll be more than happy to add you to my list of local bloggers. The more the better. Just make sure you add Ian and Kevin to your links, as their feelings were hurt...

    Look forward to reading your posts.

    Big Al

    ReplyDelete
  11. Again, I am sorry I should have contacted you before I used anything, but your blog was one of the reasons that I started my blog back up again.

    Previously, I had another blog that was dedicated to sports and sports wagering. I had stopped writing in it for sometime.

    I started getting your posts via RSS and it made me want to write again. I remembered meeting Wayne Fontes once and he signed this photo for me.

    I don't know why Kevin's site wasn't in there as I enjoyed his interactive banner.

    I thought your link was in there, but in reality it was the Wayne Fontes Fan Club. You are on there and bold now.

    I'm a UofM alumni, an avid listener of 1270 am, and love everything Michigan. And again, I apologize and thank you for your work.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Okay, enough of the Mutual Admiration Society and let's get back to blogging! Sheesh!

    :-)

    ReplyDelete