
“Hear Steven Miles’s jaw-dropping clanger!”
Those were the words used at 5.55pm on Thursday night as Nine News Queensland teased Tipping Point viewers to hang around for its imminent 6pm bulletin.
And the person doing the voiceover for the tease? None other than that night’s regular stand-in presenter Paul Taylor.
So, the washed-up, old, hacks who compile Media Glass House were as excited as those Tipping Point viewers might possibly have been and were on the edge of their seats to hear more about this clanger. Had it effectively ruined Miles’s chances of keeping his job as Premier?
Strangely enough, Taylor didn’t mention this at all in his opening ambit outlining the night’s main news points, including happenings on the hustings that day.
Even when the day’s election news finally got aired, this “jaw-dropping clanger” still failed to get a mention!
But hold on. Just a little bit further in, Taylor added this: “….while the Premier stumbled, forgetting the name of one of his constituents”.
State political reporter Tim Arvier filled in the gaps for us. Miles “memory had blacked out”, forgetting the name of his candidate for the seat of Mirani. Arvier stayed clear of any suggestion that this momentary brainfade represented a “jaw-dropping clanger”.
And why did he do that? Because Arvier’s a professional scribe and there was simply nothing jaw-dropping or clangerish about Miles’s momentary lapse of memory. And our best suspicion is that it mightn’t have even made the bulletin – and certainly not promoted in advance – if David Crisafulli had made that stumble.
The Media Glass House has poked countless fun at the non-journalist/s who write the click-bait audio bullshit that the likes of Taylor and regular presenters Andrew Lofthouse and Melissa Downes are forced to read out. We’ve often pointed out that they sometimes sound like they were crafted at the LNP’s Spring Hill HQ and Thursday night’s effort is an example of that.
Perhaps we should just be thankful that Taylor didn’t offer that Miles’s memory blackout moment was “the gaffe that ended his bid for reelection!”. No doubt Nine News Queensland will keep that for something Anthony Albanese will say on the opening day of the next federal election campaign.
By the way, if you BUGgers out there think “jaw-dropping” sounded familiar as a hyperbolic, click-bait bullshit tool, you’re spot on.
Nine News Queensland some nights back promoted a yarn on a part redevelopment of the Howard Smith Wharves precinct that included a new mid-level hotel block as a “jaw-dropping” project.
The MGH thought the artist’s impression of the new hotel showed something about as bland as you can get architecturally and one totally unlikely to have a bottom jaw moving one inch from its normal position.
The MGH supposes it could once again plead with Nine News Queensland to use someone with a skerrick of journalism training to write their promos but why waste our time?
They seem more than happy to have their lead-in promos written by someone who should stick to promoting The Block, Married at First Sight and The Even Taller Summit.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: We often leave one mistake on purpose in each of our daily posts to see if anyone ever picks them up. Today’s example: in our Media Glass House story, we deliberately misnamed the Nine News Queensland presenter Paul Taylor as Paul Turner. This was a particularly brave thing to do considering the post was about accuracy in journalism! Nevertheless, we are indebted to the Nine News insider who alerted us to the error and… oh, who the fuck are we trying to kid! The bitter, washed-up, old hack who compiled that column simply got it wrong and has been given a final warning. One more misstep and a period of secret double probation will be extended.
