MEMORY FAULTY

As previously noted, Australia's Greens Senators take a pro-Sea Shepherd position in a post at their blog – the post was actually written by Tim Norton but it's on the Senators' official blog. Realizing that the Senators and Tim Norton probably wouldn't take any notice of a post from a hobby-blogger with very few readers I also lodged a comment at Greensblog, the comment sarcastically concluding:

Hunting whales is called whaling, not fishing, by the way.

Tim Norton provides a long but evasive response to my comment, sarcastically concluding:

I don’t think I ever referred to the practice as ‘fishing’, but thanks for the clarification.

Thinking I must have made a mistake I looked at the Greensblog post, which reads:

Meanwhile, the Australian Customs ship Oceanic Viking has still not been sighted in whaling waters, despite being launched recently to ensure Japanese whalers do not operate in protected waters.

Hmm, I'm certain that's not the original wording and Google cache (as of 16 January 2008) proves I'm right:

Meanwhile, the Australian Customs ship Oceanic Viking has still not been sighted in whaling waters, despite being launched recently to ensure Japanese whalers do not fish in protected waters.

The change in wording is in itself of no importance. It is unacceptable, however, that the content of a post at the official blog of elected members of government was stealthily edited. It's just not the done thing.

Update: As pointed out in comments I am indeed a dick for getting Tim Norton's name wrong – I had it as Morton. Lucky thing I didn't get Sea Shepherd wrong.

Update II: Tim Norton's response is, well, confusing:

JF Beck - apologies. You might have been looking at an earlier draft of this post.

When I first saw this I felt a bit guilty for hammering at the poor guy to the point where he felt it necessary to apologize. Having thought about it I've changed my mind; his response is a responsibility avoider if I've ever seen one.