In the September 2010 issue of the "peer reviewed journal of screen history, theory and criticism" Screening the Past there appeared an article that is almost a textbook example of how not to write history: "Patineur Grotesque: Marius Sestier and the Lumière Cinématographe in Australia, September-November 1896".
The piece is riddled with errors of all levels of severity, from the minor, such as typing errors, spelling errors, inconsistency of presentation, and general carelessness (and even an obvious mirror image of a photograph); through moderate errors such as anachronism, inclusion of completely irrelevant material, and unnecessary repetition; to major faults, including errors of fact, self-contradiction, lack of logic in reasoning, and, worst of all, large helpings of speculation. Material that is presented as hypothetical early in the article is treated essentially as fact later on, and is used to draw conclusions. There are also many instances were a "fact" is stated without any evidence being presented to back it up.
According to the editors of Screening the Past at the time, the article was submitted to three referees who each recommended publication. Draw you own conclusions.
A Microsoft® Word copy of the piece has been marked up with comments pointing out many, but probably not all, of its errors.
But wait - there's more!
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia have what they laughingly call a "scholarly essay" online that includes material on the same subject as the above piece, and which is also error-ridden drivel. And it shows its origin as a cobbled-together collection of separate Web pages, being repetitious, lacking coherence and flow of narrative, and self-contradictory. This piece even won an award!
Again, a Microsoft® Word copy of the article has been marked up with comments indicating many of its faults.
On another subject, the first De Forest phonofilm made in Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia appear to be trying for a record in the ratio of the number of errors to the number of lines of text: see the marked-up Microsoft® Word copy of the blog entry.