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Over the decades, we at The Bug have been surprised about the number of youse BUGgers out there who have asked how we decide which of our two media columns any mainstream mediocre fuckup should be placed in for forensic excoriation by the self-important, washed-up and bitter old hacks who throw these things together.

You’d think someone would have, right?

Nevertheless, it’s true over that long, profitless journey, many major fights have broken out at BugHQ – Bundy rum will do that to you – over whether a media blooper warrants just a survivable cat-of-nine-tails lashing, or the full job-ending keel-hauling that our Media Glass House can inflict. Sorry about the naval references. “I have nothing to offer you but rum, buggery and the lash!” Who said that?

And that’s why we introduced a long, long, time ago our dispute-ending Bundy Wheel (at top and below) that we’ve never revealed before.

It’s a beauty, isn’t it? But now for an example of a recent time it had to be spun to determine a MSM’s fuckup’s rightful destination – where did it better deserve to walk the plank! Sorry!

About a week ago, a Nine News Queensland reporter wrongly used the word “submerged” twice in the one bulletin. Take it away, Jessica Millwood….

She kicked off with a police officer “pushing through raging floodwaters to a sedan submerged..” and pulling a school kid out through the window.

A gentle reminder for Jessica; the definition of submerged we’ve sadly had to use quite a few times before.

And after the school-bound kid and the driver were rescued, Jessica’s report had time to show the vehicle some time later still stuck on a flooded causeway. We’ve tinkered with it a bit.

Actually, we think our graphic artist has the line just a little too high for the car to be submerged but let’s hope Jessica gets the gist anyway.

Not too far further into her flood summary, Jessica talked about an off-duty police officer, pictured as “swift-water teams ferried her from the submerged vehicle. embarrassed but safe”. Thank goodness she had undergone some breath-holding exercises recently or her mode of transport away from the scene could have been completely different!

Okay, fingers on imaginary buzzers as we reveal which of our media columns this yarn ended up in. Drum roll please….

But why, some of you might be asking? Jessica’s young and she’s a pretty good reporter – we agree! – so why the Media Glass House?

Consider this. We’ve taken the piss out of Nine News Queensland a number of times over the misuse of submerged – and to be fair Jessica’s efforts were nowhere near as bad as one of her colleagues a while ago who had some fishers clinging to their submerged boat as they awaited rescue. Trust us, image of their boat showed it was well and truly submerged. A couple of very long straws or a fuel hose could not have saved them.

Here’s our main concern. It’s clear that there is no-one at Nine News Queensland tasked with dropping an email into all its reporters’ inboxes with mistakes that the various afternoon and 6pm bulletins Nine makes ….ah, hem … occasionally.

You’d think that would be a good idea, right, for any news organisation devoted to the highest professional standards possible?

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