The Bug‘s Media Glass House has a few bones to pick with Brisbane Channel 9 News reporter Jacob Chicco following his report the other night on the tragic shooting by police of that military veteran, 52, in north Queensland.
The man had been discharged from Townsville University Hospital when the plan had been to transfer him to a private clinic for further emergency mental health care. The vet committed suicide the next day by running at armed police with knifes.
Here’s how Chicco started that report: “A health system in shambles … that’s the view of the furious police union president…”.
Apart from the fact that those first punchy words sounded like an LNP soundbite – something we’ve begun to associate with this particular newsroom – it’s the attribution that followed that sparked our concern.
Namely, when did cop union chief Ian Leavers become an expert on the state of the Queensland health system as well as policing issues? It’s a nonsense any way. One very regrettable mistake at one hospital does not a system in shambles make.
As it turns out, Leavers at no stage in Chicco’s report is shown describing the health system as being in a shambles.
Here’s what he said: “It just shows that the communication between the Health Department and other private clinics who are responsible for treatment, especially for those who have served in the ADF, needs to be improved”.
Not quite as punchy as “A health system in shambles!” is it?
So, if Chicco thought it so important to kick off his yarn with “A health system in shambles!” then surely he had a duty to show Leavers saying it? Unless he said it to Chicco off camera? We’d then return to our argument that Leaver’s view on the entire health system is largely irrelevant. Unless you want to kick a certain government in the guts?
Let’s play devil’s advocate and ponder the possibility that Leavers did not use those words at all. We don’t believe that to be the case and we hope Chicco has a long career ahead of him as a competent, fair and balanced journalist but what if?
The MGH has had a lot of fun with Channel 9 News Brisbane over time now as it does appear to be hellbent on getting rid of the Palaszczuk state Labor government in October next year.
It would be a terrible shame if Chicco has cottoned on to the notion that if you work at that newsroom, coming across as an LNP publicist is okay.
***
The promised federal funding of a big bold $750 million AFL stadium for Hobart has been generating a lot of news and commentary of late.
A range of news websites have been covering the yarn and also giving readers a taste of what Tasmanians may get for the dollars being promised by parties involved, including the Albanese Government which last week announced it would kick in $240 million for the project.
But who are readers to believe when it comes to what the stadium will, or is meant to, look like?
This artist’s impression (below) supplied by the AFL itself has been run on news sites including our ABC.
It shows a big bowl-shaped 23,000-seat stadium with a fully enclosed roof proposed for Macquarie Point near the Hobart CBD.
But other websites have been running this one (below) which has a retractable roof which makes it look somewhat like a spaceship, albeit one that could carry 27,000 passengers.
Our MGH researchers discovered – via the very comprehensive Austadiums website that keeps track of these things – that the spaceship image is actually an impression of a previously proposed stadium at nearby Regatta Point.
Significantly, the Austadiums site notes that the spaceship at Regatta Point would have involved building out over the Derwent River – a very expensive idea that helped can its lift-off.
The specialist website also shows another previous never-realised Hobart stadium proposal (below) for Macquarie Point.
Call them cynical, but regardless of what the stadium is meant to look like, our MGH teams believe that given the inevitable cost-overruns on these type of big projects – ABC News Online ran a list that was topped by a 91% overrun on Perth Stadium – the end product may well be very similar to this ….
***
To end this edition of our MGH, we present an item based on the image below that appeared yesterday on internet search engine Google’s home page.
Our MGH researchers admit that it does not involve a news item as such, but they thought it worthy of comment.
As readers would be aware, on occasion the Google logo adorning its home page is often replaced by a bespoke graphic which the search engine insists on labelling a “doodle” that draws attention to a significant anniversary, event, or person.
On Sunday the illustration above was presented and without fail, almost all of the 23 MGH researchers on duty at The Bug’s HQ had the very same reaction on seeing it.
“What has Irish stand-up comedian Dylan Moran (below) done to deserve his own Google graphic?” they thought.
But they were wrong. It turns out the image was meant to commemorate what would have been the 76th birthday of British actor, the late Alan Rickman, who died in 2016. (below)
We’ll leave it up to our readers to decide whose face they see.
Want to be alerted immediately a new blog hits Australia’s longest running and most offensive satire site? Simply click on the Follow sign or the link below to be emailed new yarns the moment they are uploaded! The very second we go far too far – and trust us we will – you can then quickly unfollow via the three dots!
The Bug Online 