Another case of Wiki journalism: It seems that Government staff weren’t the only ones preoccupied with Wikipedia last week, Perth’s Sunday Times jumped on the wiki-wagon over the weekend with its tribute to retiring AFL veterans Shane Parker and Troy Cook.  The Times article, published on the very same day as its critical report on the Coalition’s behavior in the wikisphere, blatantly plagiarises Wikipedia entries for both Parker and Cook.

Here’s some what the Sunday Times published:

At the 1996 AFL Draft Cook was chosen at pick 26 by the Swans. Cook spent the next 3 years developing his skills under coach Rodney Eade. During his time at Sydney he perfected one of his greatest assets, his tackling. He also worked with assistant coach Damian Drum who he would later meet again at Fremantle.

On his return to WA in 2000 Cook immediately showed he was determined to be a part of the Fremantle line-up with a strong pre-season and impressive early form. By the end of the season he had played all 22 games, led the club in disposals and was named the club champion.

Cook played all 88 regular season games (a club record for consecutive games at the time) in his first four seasons at Fremantle, but broke his ankle in the final round of 2003, forcing him to miss Fremantle’s first ever finals match.

Compare that to the Wikipedia entry for Cook:

At the 1996 AFL Draft Cook was chosen at pick 26 by the Swans. Cook spent the next 3 years developing his skills under coach Rodney Eade. During his time at Sydney he perfected one of his greatest assets, his tackling. He also worked with assistant coach Damian Drum who he would later meet again at Fremantle.

On his return to WA in 2000 Cook immediately showed he was determined to be a part of the Fremantle line-up with a strong pre-season and impressive early form. By the end of the season he had played all 22 games, lead the club in disposals and was named the club champion.”

Cook played all 88 regular season games (a club record for consecutive games at the time) in his first four seasons at Fremantle, but broke his ankle in the final round of 2003, forcing him to miss Fremantle’s first ever finals match.

The article goes on to rip off another four paragraphs verbatim without acknowledgement.  — Luke McKenna

24 out of 26 ratings weeks for Seven. It was yet another win to the Seven Network, making it 24 out of 26 weeks excluding Easter, or 26 of 28 weeks, including Easter. Seven won with a share of 28.8% (27.8% for the previous week) from Nine with 26.5% (27.1%), Ten with 23.2% (23.3%), the ABC with 16.3% (16.6%) and SBS on 5.3% (5.2%). Seven won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Nine won Brisbane. Once again Ten’s share in Sydney and Brisbane, 20.9%, was under the national average for the week of 23.2%. Seven’s first ep of Kath & Kim was the most watched program last week with 2.25 million people, ahead of Ten’s Thank God You’re Here which also topped two million viewers. That’s the first time this year in ratings that two separate programs have topped the two million viewer mark. Seven won Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Friday nights. Nine won Thursday night, Ten won Wednesday and Saturday nights. Ten’s broadcast of the Swans-Collingwood game gave the network a surprise win on Saturday night. The game averaged 1.072 million viewers nationally, with 437,000 watching in Melbourne. More people watched the Friday night game on Seven in Melbourne between St Kilda and West Coast with 443,000 tuning in. That game however averaged 951,000 nationally but helped Seven win the night convincingly, as did a very solid win for Seven News. Today Tonight also won Friday. At the moment Nine has no chance of winning because it is underperforming except on Thursdays and on most Saturdays. Its Sunday night efforts have gone cold and Kath & Kim will make sure of that. — Glenn Dyer

The week ahead. This week Ten runs Idol from last night to Thursday night (when its half an hour at 7.30pm) before the second series of the US So You Think You Can Dance starts. Ten has the local version of that and it will now be produced by Fremantlemedia and not Southern Star. The Idol week means Thank God You’re Here will not be seen but will be back next week: that pushes it a week closer towards the end of ratings. Tonight Seven debuts its long awaited City Homicide at 8.30pm in a special two hour episode; the second ep next week is said to be better. Seven has replaced Surf Patrol with The Force at 8pm after Border Security at 7.30pm. That will improve The Force’s figures which took a battering on Wednesday nights at 8.30 for a couple of weeks as Seven had to shore up its defences against House and Thank God You’re Here on Ten; Spicks and Specks on the ABC and Cold Case on Nine. Tonight Nine runs the biopic on Graham Kennedy called The King, starring Stephen Curry, which first aired on Foxtel. It will not be helped by the repeat of The Queen’s Castle at 7.30pm (It ends tonight). Ten runs a fresh ep of Law And Order SVU and then starts its much hyped series, Californication at 9.45pm, which is not a very kind time. Next Sunday Nine and Seven are again running movies at 8.30pm. Nine will do anything to keep its dwindling supplies of fresh CSI episodes alive until Midsomer Murders ends on the ABC, which it does next Sunday night when the last non police-related resident of the fictional part of England is found dead in a TV scriptwriter’s cottage. Tom Barnaby, his loyal sidekick and their families investigate and discover that One of them could be the Misnomer Murderer, (Gasp of surprise, mix through to black, drop music, Fx!). — Glenn Dyer

Last night’s TV ratings
The Winners: 15 programs with a million or more viewers. Kath & Kim were tops with 2.016 million, down on the 2.25 million last Sunday. Nine news was second at 6pm with 1.508 million, Midsomer Murders was third with 1.486 million at 8.30pm on the ABC and Seven News was 4th with 1.461 million. My Name Is Earl finished with 1.426 million at 8pm for Seven. 60 Minutes was 6th again with 1.368 million people (beaten for a second week). The first semi-final of Australian Idol averaged 1.282 million from 7.30pm, down on last week. Backyard Blitz won the 6.30pm battle with 1.261 million people and 8th spot, just in front of Jamie Durie’s Seven Network version of himself in Australia’s Best Backyards with 1.185 million. Seven’s 7pm program, Hot Property was 10th with 1.181 million, just in front of the 7pm ABC News with 1.130 million and the 8.25 pm update with 1.115 million. Rove at 8.30, after Idol, averaged 1.109 million for 13th spot. Next was the final of the ABC’s The Worst Jobs in History with 1.057 million people and 15th was Nine’s 8.30 movie, Something’s Gotta Give with 1.037 million. The Einstein factor at 6.30pm on the ABC with 852,000, beat America’s Next Top Model with 836,000, which then ran fourth from 7pm with the ABC news ahead of it.

The Losers: Losers? Seven’s 8.30pm movie, Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Seven originally had it down for a Wednesday night then switched: it would have been better tucked away at midday during the week. The 780,000 people not enough to hold on to the lead from K&K and Earl from 7.30 to 8.30pm. Using this average movie after such a strong hour was a dud bit of programming. Ten finished third, despite having Idol and Rove, but the ABC’s time will come on Sunday nights (or so the commercials are hoping).

News & CA: Nine News won nationally and won Sydney and Adelaide. Seven won elsewhere. Ten News At Five averaged 729,000 for the half hour program. Helen Kapalos from Ten Melbourne was reading nationally at the weekend and reminded everyone what Nine lost when her role there was downgraded. World News Australia on SBS at 6.30pm, 203,000. Earlier Weekend Sunrise on Seven averaged a high 481,000 viewers from 8am to 10am, Landline on the ABC at noon averaged 248,000, Sunday eased to 225,000 from the week before on Nine at 9am, Insiders averaged 172,000 at 9am on the ABC, Inside Business at 10am, 111,000 and Offsiders at 10.30am, 138,000. Meet The Press averaged 66,000 for Ten at 8am.

The Stats: Nine won with a share of 28.0% (25.0% last week) from Seven with 24.0% (32.2%), The ABC was third with 21.9 (20.5%) Ten was fourth with 20.8% (24.9%) and SBS was on 5.4% (7.5%). Nine won everywhere bar Perth where Seven scored. Nine also won in regional areas where WIN/NBN averaged 29.1% from Prime/7Qld with 23.4%, the ABC with 21.6%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 20.0% and 5.9% for SBS. It will be a lot tougher for Seven this week. It will depend on how The King on Nine goes against the first ep of Seven’s City Homicide from, 8.30pm.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: From the rooster to feather duster: it was a long way for the Seven Network from the strong win last Sunday to last night’s distant second. And it all came down to the quality of the movie at 8.30pm. Nine had Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton engaging in some middle aged flirtation in Something’s Gotta Give and Seven had a 70s flashback movie called Anchorman: It was a no brainer for viewers: the 1 million who watched Jack and Di for a couple of hours easily beat the antics of Ron Burgundy on Seven; and both were easily beaten by the antics of the ageing and elderly survivors in Midsomer Murders in Britain on the ABC. Nine merely outlasted Seven and the ABC and ended up with a clear win, even after Kath & Kim and My Name Is Earl has again won the 7.30pm to 8.30pm slot. Seven was also weaker at 6.30 to 7.30pm than the previous Sunday. More viewers will be available at 7.30pm next Sunday because The Worst Jobs in History has ended, and next Sunday is also the last Midsomer Murder. Tonight its City Homicide vs The King and Idol. A simple battle. Despite having two programs with more than a million viewers, Ten finished behind the ABC. Kath & Kim is making a mess of Ten’s 16 to 39 and especially its 18 to 49 approach on Sunday nights. Idol didn’t stand up top K&K as well as it did a week earlier.