Thursday, July 03, 2008

green text

When newspapers are unsure of their facts - aka making shit up - they should use a green font. It makes it easier for me to skim for facts and ignore fiction and hearsay. And, if they are going top make shit up they should make up really good shit.

Take this news item. Axe killings in Cowra. It's changed a bit today, as you can read, but yesterday we were told two kids and a woman were killed with an axe by the kids grandad.Horrific. Awful. The sad truth is that people are dead. However, we are now told the kids were found in the bathroom. Soaking wet. Drowned. I'm not clear where the original axe-murdered info came from, but it now seems it was not true. I've watched enough episodes of CSI to know that the a drowned body and an axe-murdered body will each display telltale clues to their respective causes of death. But the axe story was considered likely enough to be true to be worthy of splashing on the front printed and online pages.

The story is still being referred to as the axe-murder-case. Sounds far more sensational than drowning. So how is the new news beiong reported? Well, today the Daily Telegraph (aka Daily Terrorgraph; UK readers can read UK Daily Mail for Aus Daily Telegraph. Yes, it is that poor...) dedicated three quarters of it's front page to a Rugby League result. The remaining quarter let us know the news they reported yesterday was wrong, or at least sexed up.

Of course that is not their spin. They tell us they have exclusive new news. That the Sydney Daily Telegraph is full of shit is neither new or exclusive news.

So, dear journos, how about tomorrow you print MORE HORRIFIC DETAILS? How about this; victims diced into small cudes, made in macarbe rubiks cubes and sold on eBay! Interpol investigating the highest bidder, an Austrian schoolteacher named Karl?

That should sell some papers.

Tragic that people are dead.

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