blog Hey everyone, as you may remember, several weeks ago we decided to embark on a fact-checking exercise with respect to the extended analysis which technology media outlet iTNews published on the National Broadband Network’s rollout progress. At the time, the publication had alleged that NBN Co had deliberately been fudging the numbers relating to its fibre rollout, with the intent to make the rollout look better than it actually was.
I just wanted to let you all know that I’ve decided not to pursue the article at this time. I had planned to devote a chunk of time to the situation last week, but with quite a lot of other work on and a lack of spare hours, I haven’t been able to get stuck into the kind of extended analysis of the situation I would have liked to. In the meantime, others have done much of this work in my absence. For example, I direct readers to this extended analysis of iTNews’ allegations published on Whirlpool by SkyMesh representative Aaron, whoc has gone into the situation in a great deal of detail. NBN Co itself has also issued an extensive statement relating to iTNews’ claims, which can be found here. And of course, dozens of readers on Delimiter and other sites such as Whirlpool have also chipped in to examine the claims.
My view of the situation, after having considered the analysis others have already done (but not having done my own numerical analysis), remains the same as it did several weeks ago. As I wrote at that point:
“The work iTNews has done is admirable. It’s great that this kind of deep analysis is being conducted on NBN Co’s data. However, it appears as if the publication failed in two critical steps. Firstly, although it conducted two weeks of research on NBN Co’s data, it failed to speak in depth to the company to source context and insight from real human people into the cold data which it was analysing. This context — which Ferris went a long way to supplying last night — might have totally changed the character of the original iTNews story.
Secondly — and this is the part I personally consider unforgivable — the publication did not provide any direct evidence for its claim that NBN was deliberately fudging its numbers. This claim cannot be backed up by statistical analysis alone. It requires that iTNews had human sources that could verify human intent to deceive.”
My decision not to pursue the article relates to the issue of time. I didn’t get to do the analysis in a timely fashion, and since that time events in the NBN debate have moved on rather quickly, with new claims about the speed of NBN Co’s rollout being aired. In this context, it seems prudent to move on from subjects that I didn’t get to in time and get back up to speed with the current debate. There are more pressing issues to investigate now. This sort of thing happens a fair bit in journalism; sometimes you have a glut of stories and have to dump old ones you were planning, sometimes you have a deficit and have to do proactive work to find new ones.
However, as I didn’t match my commitment to the issue, I want to publicly apologise to iTNews for not devoting the same time to the issue as its reporters and editors did. The conclusions which the publication drew have been questioned, but the work that went into drawing those conclusions was still valuable and worth doing. I also wanted to apologise to readers for the same issue — not managing my time better and delivering on my promises. Despite my best intentions, I didn’t go into as much depth as iTNews did on this issue to analyse its coverage, and this is something I regret. I’ll try harder next time.
“whoc has gone into the situation” who or whom?
Don’t feel bad Renai. One man can’t do it all. Just keep doing the best you can. Which, BTW, has been terriffic.
+100
Agreed.
At the rate he churns out articles, I still don’t know how Renai manages to find time to sleep (let alone have a life away from a keyboard) as it is :)
Dear readers,
It has come to my attention that Renai has been sleeping. As you know we here at Delimiter aim for the highest quality journalist standards possible. On behalf of the publication, I must apologise.
I can assure you that Renai will be punished for this transgression. We take acts like this very seriously here at Delimiter.
I would also like to inform you that Renai is under investigation for engaging in social activities and utilising some of his time to play computer games that he is not reviewing. Until the investigation is complete I have no further comment.
I hope that Renai’s behaviour will not prevent you from reading our publication in future. We will be conducting a review in the coming days to make sure that none of his published pieces were adversely affected by his sleeping.
Thank you for your time,
Regards,
The Editor
Delimiter
While it’s clear that a major violation has been committed, it’s a good sign that Delimiter is being open and honest with the readers. That’s a sign of a company that gets PR. Maybe in time we can come to trust Delimiter again, when the wounds have healed.
I shall do my best to earn back that trust. For my country, for my honour. For CLAN MCLEOD!!
Goddamnit, now that you guys have a direct communication with the Editor, I’m really sunk. He’ll know everything that’s going on!!!
Crap!!
He slept all last Friday!
And he’s grown a beard.
The evidence is irrefutable.
http://imageshack.us/a/img651/3073/renaihige.jpg
Fair’s fair. I think it’s okay if Renai sleeps.
So long as he dreams about writing about the NBN :)
heh cheers guys, much appreciated :)
THAT’S IT NEVER READING DELIMITER AGAIN, GUESS I’LL GO BACK TO GET MY NBN COVERAGE AND IT NEWS FROM THE AUSTRALIAN!!!!
You make that sound like a bad thing. Oh, wait. It is.
We don’t care about your iTNews rebuttal – give us the HOTS review already!!
Well, a month ago, you could have advised us you were getting busy. This looks really bad, because we all expected you to deliver, and yes- i can see you have your reasons, but I prefer to ignore them and score some points instead. Therefore, I call for the resignation of your “so called” editor, as he clearly should have been able to see this oncoming target failure. I call for you to stop any further article research until such time as a full cost benefit can be completed, and we can confirm that the existing model you are “working” (hehe) under is unrealistic, and possibly going to cost in excess of $60,000 (or lets face it, even $100,000) of staff time before you can deliver upon your promises. We all know there is a shortage if interns and you were never going to get the research completed in time, if only you had listened to us know it alls… ;)
(Nice apology – I was actually very keen to see that article, but I know, given last weeks over 80h working week, that time is precious, and not all of it should be spent working. Well, I know in hindsight… But at least I also know from hindsight I will forget and do it again… Doh!)
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