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.

It seems that if there is any place for artificial intelligence in the world of journalism it might be to replace what once were the many sub-editors who checked raw copy and picked up and corrected mistakes before a story was published.

A case in point is a story on the InQueensland news website by arts reporter Phil Brown about the shortlisted entries for the 2023 Brisbane Portrait Prize whose winners will be announced in coming weeks.

After admitting that he is the subject of one of the paintings on this year’s shortlist, Brown tells readers that one of his favourites in the shortlist is a photographic entry by Sangeeta Mahajan called The Red Barons featuring eight male members of the Brisbane Club. (below)

He explains: “These ‘Red Barons’ are all wind connoisseurs and good friends.”

That’s either a very unusual pastime or a simple brain fart that AI might well have corrected.

***

Nine News’ national politics reporter at the weekend talked about “election day” on October 14.

Mediocre Bytes appreciates we’re also saying Yes, No, informal or drawing dick pix on the ballot paper at a referendum that day on whether to recognise our First Nations people in the Constitution and give them a voice to parliament but we didn’t think we were electing anybody?

Still, we are electing to do something on the day and Mediocre Bytes does accept it gets a tad picky every now and then, right?

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