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.

“Where the fuck has all the basic training fucking gone,” one of our senior Mediocre Bytes compilers spluttered. “Fucked if we know!”, several of his colleagues spluttered back.

They were referring to ABC reports, online and on the TV news, these past days after the tragic fatal cash between the bus and the four-wheel drive towing a caravan south of Townsville on Sunday.

They referred constantly, between splutters, to the never-ending use of the absolute Journalism 101 no-no! – the old use of “a bus has collided with a caravan” line on online and TV news reports.

There was probably a time in this wonderful craft where a cadet wouldn’t have been capable of getting through their first week without being taught – and just the once because it always stuck – that saying something like “a bus has collided with a caravan” is simply wrong because it infers fault on one driver’s part.

So in summary: two moving vehicles collide. A bus and a four-wheel drive towing a caravan have collided on the Bruce Highway north of Bowen. Simples.

Similarly, a car doesn’t collide with a stationary fence post or house front, as we sadly hear one time too many from time to time. The car hits such things.

Yet, as we can see from ABC News online image (at top) whoever created that has forgotten or was never taught that very early Journalism 101 lesson. To be fair, they were probably led up that erroneous path by any number of Aunty’s reporting staff.

On the ABC’s Queensland 7pm news on Sunday night, on News Breakfast the next morning and then on the ABC morning news around noon also on Monday, three separate reporters used the “a bus has collided with a caravan” line with gay, untrained, abandon.

Whoever wrote the bottom strapline on the TV screens (below) caught their unprofessionalism.

The “spluttering” washed-up old hacks who compile Mediocre Bytes and its more serious sibling Media Glass House do continue to despair over the lack of training in their once proud industry.

They took heart in the fact that maybe the commercial news bulletins were a bit more professional.

Sadly, no. Andrew Lofthouse just after 6pm on Nine News Queensland on Monday night led with the “a bus has collided with a caravan” line.

Oh, dear. We at Mediocre Bytes do despair. We really do.

STOP PRESS: Aunty was at it again last night (Wednesday) with its 7pm newsreader trotting out the old “bus has collided with a caravan” line. Oh, double dear.

***

Someone at ABC News Online maid a rooky era in the original heading applied to one of its federal political stories posted on Tuesday. (below)

But to be fare, the sharp ayes of hour Media Bytes researchers noted that in just a short thyme the problem had bean fixed.

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