Is ABC News Online seeking to annoy its readers by inserting sooooooo many photos of Rupert Murdoch and his offspring in its follow-up stories about the US media mogul’s alleged retirement?
That’s a question our Media Glass House researchers have been asking after perusing today’s instalment of Succession II on the ABC News website.
Today’s latest item on the Murdoch manoeuvres features 12 pics which our MGH teams think may be a bit of overkill considering how most don’t add much to the story and actually become annoying when scrolling down many, many screens to read the full yarn.
Our researchers also wonder who wrote the captions to the pics, some of which caused them to scratch their collective heads.
For instance, the caption to this main pic (below) on top of today’s yarn mentions Rupert and eldest son Lachlan.
But the boy’s poor mother (Not literally!) Anna doesn’t get a mention.
Same deal when she appears in two other pics. (below)
Then there’s some pics that are just confusing, especially to readers unfamiliar with the Murdoch family tree.
This one (below) mentions Rupert’s four adult children from two marriages Prudence, Lachlan, Elisabeth, and James but features two who are not identified. That’s Elisabeth and James, if you don’t know.
The spouses of Lachlan and James get the Anna Anonymous treatment in an online story last Friday. (below)
Now this caption is just odd. (below) It points out Rupert’s two children from his marriage to Wendy Deng by identifying the one on the right as Chloe then mentions sister Grace.
Wouldn’t it be easier just to say “Grace and Chloe”? Our MGH teams think readers would be familiar with the idea of left to right.
Now it’s the men’s turn to go MIA.
Here’s a pic of Elisabeth Murdoch with a caption saying that her romance with a chap called Matthew Freud didn’t please her old man.
Is that Mr Freud on the left? Or maybe on the right? Who knows?
Also in the Friday story poor (Again, not literally.) James Murdoch went missing in this pic (below) whose caption told readers Rupert had married Jerry Hall in 2016 “with his sons Lachlan and James by his side”.
Now is this a mistake? The same pic above was recycled but cropped different in a Friday story (below) which identified Lachlan being on the left.
Technically correct, say our MGH researchers, but for clarity the caption writer should also have noted he was on the far right.
One of our MGH researchers took just a few minutes to identify the man through an online picture search.
He’s the New York-based reporter for the Sydney Daily Mirror, Zell Rabin.
Our MGH team have decided to draw a discrete veil over the fact that the pic was originally published with a caption saying it was taken at an Oval Office meeting in 1966.
Now that would be news.
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