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.

Many, many months ago, this column took the mickey out of a graphic design feature that had begun appearing on Nine News 6pm bulletins out of our capital cities. We predicted it wouldn’t last a week so there was egg on our face as it has lasted much longer than that.

To show where the station’s infield reporters were, a large map firstly appeared on screen and then was reduced down to the right-hand corner. Few made any sense, even if depicting the main magistrates court in Brisbane CBD for example. Or a Brisbane hospital.

The maps showing regional spots anywhere around this wide, brown, land of ours were just laughable.

We joked back then but maybe the idea came from a graphic design student on work experience up at Nine News who also happened to be the daughter of Nine Entertainment Co. chairman Peter Costello who thought it was a marvellous idea.

Well, this week, it looks like the design “feature” is on its way out. Some bright spark has decided the location should only be shown in a much smaller version and only once on the bottom left of screen.

But it’s now often half-hidden by news straplines across the bottom of screen, as shown in last night’s bulletin from reporter-in-the-field Bailey Kenzie.

Hard to imagine but this is even sillier than the original version. We at Mediocre Bytes can’t wait until the thing disappears completely, as it should have done by the end of that first week way back when!

***

We at Mediocre Bytes are very, very hurt indeed that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation didn’t heed our criticism in yesterday’s column over news outfits that fuck up the number of charges someone is facing.

We questioned why such outfits, supposedly for the sake of a punchier news item and with no concern whatsoever about looking sloppy, inaccurate and downright unprofessional, would, in the example used yesterday, say Sam Kerr is facing charges when she’s facing only one.

Sadly, here’s Aunty at it again just this morning….

As far as Mediocre Bytes can see from scouring various online news sites, some fellow has been charged with the murder of just one person. We can’t see anywhere if he faces other charges but even if he does, Aunty should have worded things differently. It is, after all, one murder charge.

Want to be alerted immediately a new blog hits Australia’s longest running and most offensive satire site? Simply click on the Follow sign or the link below to be emailed new yarns the moment they are uploaded! The very second we go far too far – and trust us we will – you can then quickly unfollow via the three dots!

Follow The Bug Online on WordPress.com