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.

Although this column concentrates on the silly little mistakes that maybe don’t amount to a full satisfying plate of fried bait fish, its compilers often ponder whether some of these regular errors deserve to be sent to a higher court of review – namely our more serious Media Glass House.

Here are a few that might qualify for such consideration. At top and below are Peter Hartcher’s column and extract from the back page of the News Review section of last Saturday’s The Sydney Morning Herald.

It’s true that every man, woman and dog in The Bug‘s crowded newsroom knew that the recent federal election involved 150 House of Representative seats, down one from the 151 seats in 2022. So why didn’t Hartcher, supposedly the finest political mind in the Herald empire?

And what credence should we give to his political musings/analysis over all if he doesn’t know such a basic fact about the current status of our federal parliament?

And don’t get us started on what that says about any sub-editor who might have taken a casual look over Hartcher’s copy as they grappled with the more serious problem of whether to call page 3 of any SMH edition page one or the front page. (Our Media Glass House column tomorrow (Saturday) will return to that sorry state of affairs).

Like another recent one with a political slant that we could easily have sent to the MGH? Take a look at this from Tuesday.

The trust we normally have in the Australian Associated Press newswire agency loses a bit of a shine with this online news teaser. After the May 3 election, Labor is nowhere near a majority in the Senate and the defection to its ranks by a former WA Greens senator doesn’t change that state of affairs much at all.

Okay, here’s one that suits this column perfectly and it was picked up by our good mate down Melbourne way, Dean Felton, former highly respected top-shelf TV news hound!

Someone at the Oz has really fucked up and needs to go to Specsavers if they can’t spot the difference between “range” and some good old fashioned “raping”, although one judge has ruled the latter has taken place in our federal house of parliament. And Australia’s best-by-far national broadshit needs to upgrade to a better auto-correct system.

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