I’m not a huge fan of the government’s planned Australia 2020 summit, but Andrew Bolt’s hatred of the idea makes me look like a fanatical supporter. I think it’s an idea with merit but the way it’s been setup and will be run will ultimately lead to very little useful discussion and no real generation of ideas. But Bolta thinks it’s a pernicious lefty groupthinking love-in, and perniciously twists The Sunday Age’s words to make his point.

Kevin Rudd announces more delegates to his 2020 summit love in. As predicted, the latest confirm that most invitations are going to people who share the Left’s agenda

Here’s a list of summit delegates on The Sunday Age’s website.

And here’s the layout Bolt used in his blog post.

See how he’s placed The Sunday Age’s list in a blockquote, suggesting that it’s a — you know — quote? But he’s also added names to the list that were in the paper’s story text but not in the list. And see how he’s selectively added his own extra notes to delegates’ bios to emphasise the evil leftiness?

The Sunday Age:

Rodney Dillon, former ATSIC commissioner.

Bolta:

Rodney Dillon, former ATSIC commissioner, stolen generations activist and campaigner for the return of Aboriginal remains.

Campaigner for the return of Aboriginial remains? Evil man!

The Sunday Age:

Waleed Aly, a member of the Islamic Council of Victoria executive and a lecturer in the global terrorism research centre at Monash University who will join the committee dealing with Australia’s future security.

Bolta:

Waleed Aly, Islamic Council of Victoria executive member and a lecturer in the global terrorism research centre at Monash University and “war on terror” critic (to go on group discussing security)

“War on verbs” critic and Muslim? He must be a terrorist who wants to bring down Western civilisation!

The Sunday Age:

Rosemary Stanton, nutritionist.

Bolta:

Rosemary Stanton, nutritionist and anti GM food campaigner.

Anti-GM food? Hippy.

But here’s my favourite. The Sunday Age:

Ana Kikkinos (sic), best known for the TV series The Secret Life of Us and Young Lions and the film Head On

Bolta:

Ana Kokkinos, director of TV series The Secret Life of Us and Young Lions and the gay cult film Head On

Gay? Cult? Gay cult? Aaargh! Sound the moral alarm! Teh gays are in a cult and they’re attacking! They’re going to make our kids join the cult and give them teh gay and make them vote Green!

Bolta also inserted some delegates into the list who weren’t in The Sunday Age’s story.

Andrew Denton, Left-wing TV presenter

Evil, evil lefties!

Fiona Stanley, paediatrician and fierce Bush hater

Evil, evil Bush haterers!

Michael Tate, former Keating justice minister.

Paul Keating? Evil!

Christine Nixon, Victorian chief commissioner who’s project has been to feminise the force and make it “non-authoritarian”

Evil, evil women. Get back in the kitchen.

Sara Haghdoosti, member of the International Women’s Day organising committee and a former women’s officer for the Sydney University Student Representative Council

Women organising? Evil!

But the most telling part is the way that Bolta hasn’t added any information to the following delegates.

Bolta:

Professor Joshua Gans, Melbourne economist.

GrodsCorp:

Professor Joshua Gans, right-wing Melbourne economist.

Bolta:

Lachlan Murdoch, media investor.

GrodsCorp:

Lachlan Murdoch, media investor and son of the owner of the largest and most right-wing media conglomerate in the world. Oh, and also the son of the man who pays Bolta’s wages.

Just another sly and dishonest effort from Australia’s shrillest journalist (sic).

UPDATE (11:50am): Blogger Gummo Trotsky pointed out to Bolta in the comments of his blog his dodgy use of a blockquote and italics…

Nice use of italics to suggest that the list, with descriptions, is quoted verbatim from one of your two sources when in fact the editorialising is all your own work.

…and got a terse response from a clearly rattled Bolta.

There is no intention to mislead, Mr Troll, and a quick click on the links I provided would make clear the facts. But if it makes you feel happier, I’ll take the words out of italics.

That’ll make it much clearer, Mr Journalist (sic).

UPDATE II (12:00pm): My response to the removal of italics.

UPDATE III (2:00pm): An angry commenter threw down a challenge to the above comment…

Oh for heaven’s sake. Grow up and make a comment on the actual content of the post or go away.

…so I replied that I had made comment on the substance of the article and provided a link to this post. Unfortunately it seems at this point that I’ve been SNIPPED.

UPDATE IV (2:40pm): Bolta has responded to my comment about the blockquote and copied bullet points. I believe he has perfected the skill of shriek-typing.

Oh, and my comment with a link to this post is still SNIPPED.

HIGH Court judge Michael Kirby has been vilified and defamed by fraudsters who have stolen his identity to post offensive material on the popular internet site MySpace.

The identity thieves posed as the Australian judge to put sordid and sexually charged material on a fake Justice Kirby profile page.

So begins another fear-mongering, sensationalist and pathetic beat-up in the Sunday edition of Melbourne’s imploding broadsheet The Age. Like, shock horror, somebody pretended to be somebody else on the internet. And not only is this act “identity theft” but it “underlines the flimsy or fraudulent nature of much of the internet’s so-called ‘citizen journalism’.” Surely that odour I detect isn’t a whiff of fear about the threat to your pathetic dead-tree “journalism” from the blogosphere and non-mainstream media, Age? And who the hell has ever called MySpace citizen journalism? Long bow drawn.

I’m not entirely sure what The Age expects the Internet Police Force (IPF) to do about this terrible case but as “journo” Reid Sexton seems to imply there should definitely be, like, laws against stuff like this. And penalties. Maybe we should just turn the internet off.

Actually, turning off the internet would result in one important outcome: saving us from death by celebrity “news” overload every time one accidentally navigates towards theage.com.au.

There’s a clue in the article about what may have prompted The Sunday Age to feature such a non-story so prominently on page three:

When asked if MySpace could trace those who created the profile [the spokesperson] replied: “Yeah, potentially.”

But she refused a request to hand over details of the author and said any potential legal issues would be dealt with as they arose.

“Why would we give those details to you?” she said.

And damn straight too! Why would she hand over private customer details to an anonymous voice on the end of the phone claiming to be a “journalist” from The Age? But don’t dare suggest to a “journalist” that they aren’t omnipotent because their instinctive reaction to being disrespected is to seek revenge and vindication through lies, misinformation and sensationalism.

A much more sensible tone was adopted by senior law lecturer at Monash University, Dr Melissa de Zwart, in her comments for the news story. She outlined a possible legal course for Justice Kirby but qualified it all by saying, “ultimately people have to learn that what they see on the internet is not always correct.” Dr de Zwart knows that there are whole generations growing up now with a higher level of internet literacy than any Age hack will ever have. And just as there will always be dodgy crap going on in the internet tubes there will always be lies presented as truth in that self-proclaimed bastion of real journalism: newspapers.

Does Reid Sexton think we should ban newspapers too?

UPDATE: Call the IPF! John Howard’s identity has been stolen too! And Julia Gillard’s! And Kevin Rudd’s! And Kim Beazley’s! Oh, the humanity!