There’s no way to tell how this appeared in real-time, because it was an invitation-only event, but the transcript of Australia’s first live webchat with Kevin Rudd is strewn with spelling mistakes and errant or non-existent punctuation in the Prime Minister’s messages.
The first sentence from the most powerful man in the country, guardian of our trillion-dollar economy: Hi PM here lets get going with this Nearly a thousand people contributed ton the climate change
Which makes you wonder: will live blogging exercise be extended ton other ministers?
As an online journalist who has logged many hours of live blogging, there’s a massive element of glass houses and throwing stones here. The typing gods know I am a repeat offender.
But this is the Prime Minister of Australia.
There are spell checkers.
At least, someone who could correctly spell and punctuate should have sat on his shoulder and reviewed his copy as he wrote.
To his credit, he admits to the sloppiness, signing off with an apology.
“Sorry i type like an extra in Thunderbirds,” he wrote.
Yeah. Brains would probably have trouble finding the shift key for that i, too.
Some other choice quotes from the PM’s live chat:
“michaelcrowe23 asks about our targets. Please have a look at www.climatechange.gov.au re our three sets of targets : five,fiteen and twety five with the latter two conditional on the nature of the Copenhagen outcome.
“Back on energy efficiency, ideas re working from home and less business and govt commuting. One of the reasons we are laying out a nationa high speed braodband network is to make all that more possible…
“Again on energy efficiency, you may not be aware of nour national green car plan which isbuilt on a 1.3 billion dollar green car innovati0on fund. One of the aims is to produce an Australian made hybrid.Much more to do.
Look, there has never been a time when language has been evolving so quickly. Technology, particularly SMS, email and instant messaging are transforming how we communicate.
Former Yahoo! chief executive Jerry Yang infamously persisted in using no capital letters in his emails - including when he wrote to his entire company to tell them a plan for Microsoft to buy the company had fallen through.
Is it too much to ask that the Prime Minister should be able to spell?
Or should we give him credit for giving the live-blogging thing a go, putting his clearly rudimentary typing skills - which, I’ll hasten to add, are better than those of many people I have come across - on display for the nation to see?
I say no. The Prime Minister of this country should be able to find the shift key, know there is at least one space after a full stop, and read what he has typed before hitting return.
It should be interesting when childhood literacy hits the headlines again.
Too cruel? Let us know what you think in the comments. Punctuation appreciated.
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