The column that has fun with the smaller mistakes and missteps of Australia’s mainstream mediocre; that pays homage to those sweet little fishes that individually don’t amount to a full meal but collectively can cause a tummy upset over the overall state of the once great and noble craft of journalism in this country.
You’d think the subeditors (we could be wrong using the plural there) at The Courier-Mail would know what Ariarne Titmus looks like, considering she’s a multiple world and Olympic champion from Queensland.
That’s a reasonable supposition from the paper’s former rugby league writer and Suncorp Stadium media hall of famer Barry Dick after he spotted the blue (at top) in yesterday’s rag.
Titmus, at right in that photo, didn’t rate a mention in the blocklines. The three ladies were named as, and we’re assuming it was left to right because that’s what real newspapers used to do, Olympic surfer Sally Fitzgibbons, Paralympian Montana Atkinson and Harvey Norman chief Katie Page.
Page is in the middle of the trio and Barry Dick also makes the point that Montana Atkinson is quite a famous name and face in her own right, so the subs get a second marking down for not noticing her absence.
Barry tells Mediocre Bytes that other Newscorpse (our word, not his) outlets did run the picture (below) that should have appeared above the blocklines used in The Courier-Mail.
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So, should ABC TV’s 7pm news in Brisbane have egg on its face for claiming the other night that it had exclusive access to something that Channel 9 an hour earlier also covered in full?
Not necessarily. ABC news online earlier in the day had been boasting that only it had a copy of the written statement provided to police from the woman who cooked the meal that killed three people from suspected mushroom poisoning.
Channel 9 could easily have simply copied that information and its broadcast of that doesn’t necessarily make a lie of the ABC claim of original exclusivity.
Mediocre Bytes says well done to the ABC if it did gain exclusive access to the letter’s contents from the woman but might be a little concerned if it turns out the police have done two highly improper things: proactively leaking the document themselves and favouring one news outlet over others in the process.
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