One of the expected outcomes of the big metropolitan dailies strike in May/June 1980 was that the death of hot metal – adieu all those noisy, lead-filled Linotype machines and, sadly, their PKIU operators as well – meant the introduction of DVTs and fast-evolving cold type technologies was that newspapers could print later in the evening. Be even more relevant and competitive with electronic mediocre.

It proved an absolute nonsense of course with deadlines brought forward earlier and earlier.

The Media Glass House mentions this as background information as it focuses today on a Malcolm Knox article in Saturday’s The Sydney Morning Herald. (at top).

Considering Novak Djokovic was clearly not playing at his best at the Australian Open and in fact was dumped out around 5pm summer time on Friday arvo, Knox probably should have known better than to pen the piece as it appeared online. Sure, we appreciate he’s not responsible for the heading but surely someone in the newsroom needed to give him heads-up as to a possible tweak of the whole bloody thing?

The Bug’s Media Glass House gets a home-delivered weekend SMH in Brisbane so we were unconcerned that Knox’s column had not been tweaked for a country edition.

But the story has remained unchanged on the paper’s online presence so we’re assuming nothing was altered either in hardcopy copies that lobbed on suburban footpaths and in newsagents and cafes across Sydney on Saturday morning.

We really do wonder why sub-editors couldn’t have spent just a few moments tweaking the heading at the very least to save Knox just a little bit of face?

Gosh, how to do that? Oh, maybe something like this? We don’t have the SMH font used for the Knox piece but it took a minute or two to try this one. You know, just to show readers you might be a hardcopy paper but you’re still worth picking up for maybe, not the latest news, but at least you’re giving it your best shot.

Perhaps Knox is one of those gifted writers who have made it clear that their copy must not be changed one iota given their literary gifts – such prima donnas do exist across the MSM landscape, we’re told and he might have even done the heading – and anyone who even tries has in the past been taken out back and shot.

Perhaps Knox went completely offline early on Friday night for some well-deserved drinks and an unbrisk working dinner and was totally unaware about what happened at Melbourne Park?

Either way, it made him look just a little bit silly and spoilt an otherwise excellent article on the mighty Ken “Muscles” Rosewall and his rightful place at the apex of Australian tennis history.

***

As the nation heads back to work after a long weekend marked by a divisive debate over Australia Day, our MGH researchers take comfort in the fact that New Crap Australia’s national broadshit The Australian takes such a far and balanced approach to its coverage of national  politics. (below)

***

To end this edition of our Media Glass House our research teams wish to note a weekend news item featuring highly successful Brisbane-based celebrity hairdresser Stefan Ackerie, best known as just Stefan.

It seems Stefan put up for sale his unique Q1 vehicle number plate which he bought in 1985 for a price that was not mentioned in the article. (below)

It apparently attracted strong interest at auction and eventually sold for almost $5.7 million.

Our MGH teams took note of the story for two reasons.

First, they would like to know who on earth has that much spare cash to splurge on a number plate in the midst of a supposed cost-of-living crisis. Clearly someone who really doesn’t need any stage-three tax cut, they suggest.

Second, and more importantly, our MGH researchers also really want to know how Stefan, now 83, manages to keep his hair jet black.

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