About a year ago, a few Irish rugby player profiles were ‘vandalised’ on Wikipedia, some of these were tongue in cheek additions, rumoured to be added by the players themselves.
This leads us to Leinster’s Girvan Dempsey, who is featured in the publication of Irelands Sporting Giants written by Ivan Martin and published by Appletree Press. From the publisher themselves :
Ireland’s Rugby Giants — That was the challenge that faced Ivan Martin when he wrote Ireland’s Rugby Giants, the latest book from Appletree Press.
Apparently not that challenging as Ivan copied a vandalised wikipedia entry from Girvan Dempseys page.
The very obvious cheeky additon was taken from various vandolised versions in the ‘away from rugby’ section — check references to jam making and discovering flora and fauna, as well as discovering new bird species!
The only explanation I can think of is that both the writer, and editor didn’t read any of this or even verify the claims or research anything about the player at all, which leads to the question — How on earth did this get published?
Wikipedia is a great resource, but basing all of your research from one source is extremely bad journalism!
Following hot on the heels of Stephen Irelands public Bebo Page , Two of Britain’s top tennis juniors have been suspended for “unprofessional behaviour” and “lack of discipline”
David Rice, the second-best British junior, and Naomi Broady, the national Under-18 champion, have had their funding withdrawn.
They were deemed by the Lawn Tennis Association to have breached contracts requiring them to act professionally.
The LTA took the action after being alerted to photos and confessions on the Bebo social networking website.
More on that from BBC Sport, They’ve had their funding cut for publicising a lifestyle of partying, drinking and eating junk food.
They’re not exactly kids, aged 17 & 18, doing what most other teenagers do with their Social Network sites, but the difference being that they’re aspiring to be professional athletes. (throwing kebabs down you at 3am on a Saturday may not be considering ‘training’)
But it’s not just potential athletic stars who should be weary, Jessica Zenner, a Nintendo employee, was sacked a few weeks back
Her “Inexcusable Behavior” blog, though written semi-anonymously, and under the pen name of Jessica Carr, was apparently discovered by bosses at Nintendo, who took a dim view over some of its contents.
