The trouble with The!

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.

We’ve had fun with this before but, bugger it, let’s roll with it one more time.

Fact: There is a suburb in inner-north Brisbane called Grange.

Fact: That suburb called Grange is named after The Grange, the first farmhouse built in the area. The heritage-listed home is still there on the corner of Crowther and Fuller Streets in nearby Windsor. (Or it may be in Lutwyche or Grange; we’re still researching that one and coming up with different answers !)

Fact: Countless people who aren’t expected to know any better call the suburb The Grange.

Fact: Some journalists who should know better also call the suburb The Grange. Have done for decades. And rather interestingly, if they are reporting on something happening there, they use “at The Grange”. Go figure, hey?

And with that summary behind us, we now say hello to Mia Glover (at top), newsreader on last night’s (Saturday’s) Nine News Queensland who gave us this: “A massive fire has torn through three houses at The Grange…” AT THE GRANGE. Oh dear!

For our southern BUG readers, that’s like reading out there’s been a factory fire at The Glebe or a road-rage incident at The Carlton.

As to last night’s story on Nine News, hats off to Clare Todhunter who didn’t fall onto the “at The Grange” trap; praise that can’t be extended to the graphic artist who provided the image shown below.

So how did Aunty go across town?

The 7pm TV bulletin got Grange just right but while ABC online remembered to drop the The, they persisted with this notion that anything that happens in the suburb of Grange actually takes place AT Grange. A similar fire would have happened “in Chermside” or “in Cleveland”.

So there we have it. Grange is the suburb and things happen IN GRANGE.

It’s not rocket surgery, folks!

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