User:Chris Chittleborough/Blair background

Tim Blair vs Crikey

Abbreviations
TB	Tim Blair — a conservative journalist/blogger/columnist/editor
AB	Andrew Bolt — a conservative journalist/columnist/blogger
C	Crikey — a hard-left opinion website, mostly subscriber-only
PP	Pure Poison — a blog at C’s website (outside the paywall; ad-funded?) devoted to trying to discredit AB (especially), TB, other conservatives and News Limited; written by non-journalists for pay
Sear	Jeremy Sear — Australian lefty blogger, long-time foe of AB, whose feud with TB goes back many, many years; now attacking AB, TB etc at PP for (hits-based?) pay
JG	Jonathan Green — former editor of C, now editor of a taxpayer-funded hard-left opinion website called The Drum
SMH	The Sydney Morning Herald — struggling broadsheet newspaper; ideological and commercial opponents of Aus conservative bloggers, TB more than most
GR	Guy Rundle — hard-left writer for (among others) C

2004
2004-03-19	TB notes an attack on him at C by Wayne Sanderson.
2005
2005-06-22	Blair catches "garbage site Crikey.com.au" aiming at Piers Akerman and AB but shooting themselves in the foot
2006
2007
2007-04-02	TB notes an event in Sear's private life, making Sear "cat-slappin’ mad". (Sear was already hostile to TB; this made him extremely hostile.)
2007-07-16	C triumphantly accuses TB of plagiarism ... for publishing a press release! ... without contacting TB first! TB exposes C by publishing his email exchange with the clueless/dishonest JG. C sorta-kinda apologise.
2007-08-28	JG posts a sleazy, deceptive and entirely erroneous item implying that TB censors "his" Wikipedia article. (In fact, it is easy to see that various established editors, none of whom could be TB, had fixed recent vandalism by users 121.220.74.247 (talk · contribs), WhyDoIBother (talk · contribs) and WhyDoIBotherAtAll (talk · contribs).)
2007-09-01	TB denies ever editing (or even contacting) Wikipedia. "Thus is maintained Crikey’s remarkable record of getting something wrong almost every time they mention me."
2008
2008-10-04	(TB spots an item at C criticizing a "sick Google ad" with that ad next to it.)
2008-11-21	TB notes that C’s list of possible names for Barack Obama’s new dog include "a mongrel called Trig" and says that JG "isn’t one of your more rational types".
2009
2009-02-19	TB mocks the newly-launched PP blog, especially "selective Nazi-opposer" Sear.
2009-02-25	TB points out that C ("can’t understand a simple sentence") attacked him for something he did not say.
2009-02-27	AB publishes an email conversation in which a PP writer pleads to TB for help and TB points out his site’s outrageous slurs on TB. When lefties say TB is lying about those slurs, TB proves them wrong (Internet Archive copy) and the PP guy apologises (in an email!). (See also JFBeck’s account.)
2009-03-01	'Ant Rogenous' posts an item entitled "Sockpuppet Worn" to PP, falsely accusing TB of sockpuppetting as "WB" (no link: post was soon deleted)
2009-03-02	Sear posts an 'apology' to TB that manages to repeat and reinforce most of those accusations
2009-03-02	TB posts "Journalism in the Age of Crikey": "Fraud is alleged. The accused isn’t contacted. Lies are published. Adults become involved. The story is removed. An apology is offered."
2009-05-11	TB notes that C’s deputy editor couldn’t explain what a Double Dissolution is.
2009-05-27	TB exposes some hypocrisy in C’s coverage of Clare Werbeloff.
2009-05-30	TB twits JG for a typo and dings GR for stupidity/hypocrisy.
2009-08-13	TB slams JG’s crass comments following a deadly plane crash in PNG; followup here
2009-12-11	TB twits GR for terrible writing.
2009-12-31	TB notes an embarrassing mistake by C’s travel writer.
2010
2010-03-31	SMH gossip bloggers post "Cranky blogger takes on Crikey" — dishonest re "lampooning", wrong re which blog IP addrs were seen on
2010-04-01	SMH gossip bloggers post "Blogger’s weird decision to sue" — deceptive, incomplete, quotes Darryl Mason (!)
2010-04-10	Crikey apologises to Tim Blair" re "Sockpuppet Worn": "Crikey and the authors of this blog acknowledge that each of these suggestions are false and that there is no basis for any of them. We withdraw them unreservedly and acknowledge that Mr Blair has acted properly at all times. We apologise to Mr Blair for the hurt and distress caused." H/t: J F Beck in 2011-01
2010-04-13	SMH gossip bloggers go into full attack mode: "Blair Bitch Project", called TB’s 2010-04-12 [ "Case Closed" post] "smug", omitted key facts.
2010-04-12	TB tersely notes Crikey’s apology ("Finally, Crikey publishes something that’s worth reading.")
2010-08-25ff	GR works an "offensive and indefensible" (C’s words) attack on TB and AB into an article about Julian Assange. C retracted and apologised. In response, TB says C’s "immediate and complete retraction ... helps avoid expensive legal processes", noting that "Crikey‘s previous editor [JG] wasn’t so alert."
2010-10-12	TB notes a spat between Eric Beecher and JG.
2010-12-16	TB is skeptical about a C’s travel writer’s fulsome praise for Iran across many articles.
2010-12-20	In a column about dead asylum seekers, TB notes a major self-beclowning by Sear in a PP comment thread.
2011
2011-02-06	Alene Composta’s first blog post (per TB’s Composta Timeline 2011-03-19)
2011-03-07	TB mentions Composta; his commentators detect the (brilliant!) satire
2011-03-08ff	Jonathan Green, ex Crikey-editor and frequent target of TB’s barbs, publishes Composta’s hoax; TB responds; "humiliation" ensues
2011-03-10	TB writes about Composta, JG and how C (then edited by JG) helped hoax Quadrant.
2011-03-14	TB ends a post about AB with a passing swipe at a very silly attack on AB by Sear at PP.
2011-03-19	TB posts a Composta Timeline
2011-03-23	Composta’s blog terminated.
2011-03-28	TB pounds on C (re hoaxing Quadrant) and a warmy academic.
2011-03-29	TB notes briefly that C had trouble with its commenters on one item.
2011-04-19	TB notes "one of [C’s] more straightforward corrections" (re Anthony Loewenstein lying about a pro-Israel Aussie).
2011-05-09	TB links to a post on The Australian’s Media blog about another C shamefest: "“They [C] are blind to how ugly they are".
2011-05-22	TB links to two posts at Bunyipitude, one correcting "eternal Crikey bumblepuppy Guy Rundle".
2011-06-10	In an update, TB says that "Crikey clings to the [debunked] myth that threatened ANU scientists were moved to a secret location".
2011-08-20	While mentioning cancer obsessive "Richard Ryan", TB says that GR gave up on mentioning TB’s cancer after about 2 years.
2011-08-22	TB notes that a C staffer who pandered for a bribe "received counselling" instead of the sack.
2011-10-08	TB links to RWDB noting a goof by Sear.
2011-11-09	TB links to a Bunyip post about "Crikey earth mother Margaret Simons".
2011-11-09	TB has fun with Eric Beecher’s admission that "We need a parent".
2011-12-12	TB dings Sear for using XKCD strips without attribution. (Sear then added links to xkcd.com.)
2012
2012-01-30	TB notes another defamation suit against JG, following TB’s successful suit against C.
2012-02-13	TB dings several left-wing Aus media people for hypocrisy, including one "at Crikey" (meaning Sear).
2012-05-05	After Sear complains on PP about "news.com.au ... trying to turn [Tony Crook's return to the Coalition] into some kind of crippling defeat for the ALP", TB gleefully points out that the 'offending' piece is from AAP(!), not News. Sear, who handles some of his frequent setbacks like a mensch, flails about pathetically.
2012-08-29	TB contrasts the "desperate evasion" of C/PP/JS re their 2012-05-05 stuff-up with AB's retraction of a similar embarrassing mistake. He also mentions that JS "is no longer with Crikey". (Crikey shut PP down in June 2012.)
2012-10-02	TB points out some hypocrisy from JG