Why doesn’t the Daily Telegraph want its blogs indexed by Google?

And why is News Ltd. cool with blogs from its other newspapers’ sites being indexed?

As we discussed in tonight’s GrodsThink the seemingly awesome boys stealing dad’s credit card and hiring hookers story…

A 13-year-old boy from Texas who stole his father’s credit card and hired two prostitutes has been convicted of fraud.

Ralph Hardy confessed to ordering an extra credit card from his dad’s existing credit card company and taking his pals on a US$30,000 spending spree after which they ended up playing Halo on an Xbox with the hookers in a Texas motel.

[...]

Ralph and Co. told the working girls they were people of restricted growth working with a traveling circus.

They added that State law did not allow discrimination against the disabled so they had no right to refuse them.

…is actually a hoax.

A 13-year-old Newark, Texas, boy convicted of fraud for hiring two hookers and racking up $30,000 in charges on his father’s credit card?

According to an online Money website published in the UK, Ralph Hardy paid prostitutes to spend the evening playing Xbox video games with him and his friends in a Texas motel.

But there’s one problem. The British report is just a silly online rumor, Newark police told WND.

But where’s the correction from News Ltd. or the dozens of other news outlets that reported it?

I mean, don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect a lot from the News Ltd. or Fairfax “news” services any more, and I’m more-or-less resigned to the over-promotion of celebrity, sex and lifestyle advertising bait on their websites, but when I saw this on a news.com.au story page I thought I had accidentally stumbled upon pornotube.com instead.

Hard-hitting journalism

There has been some atrocious Ben Cousins-related media coverage lately but today’s News Limited feed, covering Cousins’ flight to LA, plumbed new depths:

A Qantas flight attendant who looked after Cousins on the flight … said Cousins was given a copy of the sports pages of one of the Sydney newspapers during the flight.

Cousins, riding in business class alone and wearing his trademark snakeskin boots, jeans and loose, white V-neck T-shirt, apparently had a good flight. “He slept for a lot of it,” the flight attendant said.

The crew also enjoyed having Cousins onboard for the 14-hour flight. Qantas gave him one of the best seats on the plane, 11B, the flight attendant said. “My female colleagues particularly really loved having him on the flight,” the flight attendant said. “They thought he was a hottie.”

This is absolutely appalling journalism. There was no mention of several facts of pivotal importance, and several key questions remain unanswered:

* What did Cousins select from the in-flight menu?
* Did he drink lattes or flat whites? (Of particular interest to some bloggers)
* What did he watch/play with on his in-seat LCD screen?
* Did he pay attention during the pre-flight safety demonstration or did he look aimlessly out the window?
* Did he puke in one of those paper bags?
* Was the plane a Boeing 747, a 777 or an Airbus A340?
* What was the pilot’s name and did he welcome passengers with a witty remark?
* Was Lisa Robertson onboard and, if so, did Cousins spend any protracted lengths of time in the lavatory?

Slipheed yesterday alerted me to News Ltd’s Vote-a-matic calculator. I was going to post about its uselessness, limitations and general silliness but Jeremy and John Surname beat me to it. So I’ll stick to posting my results…

… and pointing out how ridiculous the minor Party leaders’ faces look in the screenshots chosen by the News Ltd. nerds who coded the calculator. Bob Brown looks like a paedophile, Steve Fielding looks like he’s taking a poo, and Lyn Allison looks like a man.

(And by the way, how the fuck does Steve Fielding deserve a place in that lineup representing nothing more than 1.9% of the total Victorian vote? Where’s the Citizens’ Electoral Council?)