Over the past two days, The Bug‘s Media Glass House has taken the mickey out of examples of overblown and inaccurate hyperbole from Nine News Brisbane, especially with pre-bulletin promos for various news reports.

So, we thought: what were the chances of a three-days-in-a-row trifecta?

We present Wednesday night’s 6pm bulletin, with the supposedly lead story promoted during Tipping Point, namely that Queensland youth crime victims had been told by coppers to take matters into their own hands and make citizen’s arrests of these young criminals.

So much for a lead story. Co-anchors Melissa Downes and Andrew Lofthouse promoted the yarn throughout the hour-long bulletin and it wasn’t used until just before 7pm. The producers at Nine News were obviously in awe of its sustained, drawing, power.

Here’s Melissa Downes touting the story before the second ad break: “Forced to take matters into their own hands, tonight terrified south-east crime victims are claiming overstretched police are asking them to put their lives on the line. In a Nine News special investigation, why some Quenslanders are feeling defenceless”.

Please note the their (plural), victims (plural), them (plural) and Queenslanders (plural).

The MGH is pretty confident many of you BUGers out there know where we’re going with this.

The story when it finally screened was about ONE (singular) Brisbane resident who claimed a cop at a local police station had advised him to take matters into his own hands and arrest the young potential thief himself.

One. No plural.

Don’t facts matter anymore in primetime TV news bulletins? Would Nine News promote and then report on a fatal suburban train derailment claiming there were more than one of them? Absurd, right?

By the way, Nine News copywriters and reader-out-erers …. the bloke you showed? Didn’t appear to MGH that he’s the sort to be easily terrified. Or frightened.

Of course we all know why this is happening. Nine News Brisbane for many months now has clearly declared itself the state’s unofficial opposition and the powers-that-be at the newsroom have decided a constant stream of youth-crime stories can rid the state of the Labor government. This youth crime is inevitably out of control and is spreading unchecked throughout the entire Queensland community. Listen to Nine News Brisbane and there’s not a single Queenslander who doesn’t feel totally threatened and totally unsafe.

That news service has been the unquestioning outlet for the Voice for Victims group, in lock step for many months with that community action group’s claim that the state government is doing absolutely nothing to keep Queenslanders safe both in their homes and in their communities. And while the government may not be doing anywhere near enough – and who, knows, might deserve to be tossed out on this issue alone – to say they are doing nothing is also unprofessional, unjournalistic, bullshit.

Nine News Brisbane over the journey has also been very reluctant to give the government any credit when general crime figures around the state show a dip. We at the MGH receive such stats; Nine News appears totally uninterested in them.

A reality check right now. If Nine News Brisbane could find enough footage of youth crims trying to get into homes to rob innocent folk and steal their cars for filmed joy-rides, they’d gladly have 90-minute bulletins right up to election day in October.

And blowing up stories to billy0 with deliberate exaggerations and flowery, over-the-top buzz words is just part and parcel of the game they’re playing and the outcome they hope to achieve. Nine Entertainment Co. chair Peter Costello would be proud of his Brisbane staffers.

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