Thursday 11 March 2010

Yet more Not News

Last night TV3's attempt at a news bulletin was shameful. I could not believe the prominence given to a story that is so totally Not News that bloggers in Australia have already been tearing apart the irrelevancies, and the underlying misogyny, for most of the week.

It is Not News to cover the breakup of a celebrity couple. It is Not News even if one of them travels from our country to a neighbouring country to deal with it, in the midst of a sporting tour he is part of. It is Not News because actually their relationship is a) no one else's business and b) in no way whatsoever part of the broad range of things that it could be considered in the public interest to report on.

But we've had reporters and cameras camped outside someone's apartment, long range lenses scrutinising whether there is a certain ring on a certain finger, a live cross for absolutely no good reason on TV3 for several senseless minutes. How about we put some of those almighty media resources into some analysis of the significant cuts announced for the Ministry of Education yesterday, or what the SAS are still doing in Afghanistan, or John Key's (now no longer) secret plan to stop illegal whaling by legally allowing whaling?

One News may well have been just as bad. I was so annoyed at TV3 that I changed channels to the competition briefly, and I don't recall seeing anything about Lara Bingle and Michael Clarke, but then it was One News so I wasn't really paying attention. I roll my eyes at them all really - I'm sure if One News wasn't as invasive and irrelevant as TV3 on this story they'll have had a hard core debrief today about how they can do better (by which I mean worse) next time.

Oh, and Mr Emmerson, you generally irritate me beyond words, but this absolutely disgusting effort that never should have made it to print, is a new low, even for you.

7 comments:

Regan said...

Close Up had three stories on it: http://www.throng.co.nz/close/stories-close-tuesday-march-9-2010

An insider also posted a comment here: http://www.throng.co.nz/one-news/top-stories-one-news-and-3-news-march-10-2010#comments

Sophia said...

Ugh I've read a couple of stupid sports commentators on this subject - the worst one was when the journalist tried to make the point that because Bingle had done some semi-revealing photo spreads before, she had no right to be upset by the Fevola photos! Gah, makes me so angry!

Deborah said...

Thanks for the link, Julie.

Sophia, Mindy at Hoyden about Town as an excellent post on just that point: Maybe it's her fault for having a shower.

Julie said...

Thanks for the links Regan and Deborah. I find the whole thing so depressing that I don't know if I can read much more about it, but I'm sure someone else will :-)

Also: Sarkozy (sp?) and Bruni's marriage is so Not News. Do they do this stuff to specifically avoid actually covering Sarkozy's actual, like, policies?

Anne-Marie said...

As a cricket fan, I want to know why the Australian vice captain does a flit in the middle of a tour. That, from my point of view, is a valid news story. All the details of their relationship? Not interested.

Brett Dale said...

Close up is getting tabloid.

Cant watch one news, there is too much scripted banter between Saville and Dallow about how much hotdogs he eats.

Prime is normally good.

Julie said...

I find both the 7pm shows so frustrating that I watch Shortie, even though I am not that keen on the storylines at the moment. They cram too much in, too much of it is irrelevant crap, when what would be great would be one long form political interview, or debate, on an important issue of the moment, and then a couple of other shorter items. One of them could even be the kind of stupid pap we get now, if they would just do other good stuff.