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.
A fierce battle continues to rage among ABC reporters, commentators and even graphic artists about what to call Pentagon chief Seth Pisshead.
Sarah Ferguson on 7.30 last night called it right at least once – well, in the view of our column compilers – by using the moniker Secretary of War at the start of the program. Later on, she introduced the full segment using Secretary of Defense. Is a two-way bet defensible when practising journalism?
Secretary of War is the new title the former secretary of defense gave himself quite a while back to show the world and The Orange Oaf what a committed warmonger he is.
Even had his nameplate on his office changed to the Secretary of War. Stationery too. And as some expert on the Adam Harvey yarn on 7/30 last night explained, the US administration calls Pisshead the Secrtary of War, so we at The Bug reckons that’s what he is.
Various Australian news outlets have stubbornly stuck with the old title, which in some ways can be seen to be protecting Pisshead from his own stupidity.
Aunty for a long time now has dabbled in almost equal measure with both Defense and War. Last night’s 7.30 was a classic example as Sarah’s use of both titles, Harvey going to war, and a news strip on the ABC show going on the defensive.
Our view is simple: if this drunken warmonger wants to be called the Secretary of War then that’s what any responsible journalist Down Under should also use in the interest of that good old fashioned central trait of the craft – accuracy.
If Donald Trump changed his name legally by deed poll to Cockless Feather-Duster, wouldn’t any professional scribe be obliged to follow suit?
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We’ve witnessed across public and commercial networks this week an example of how English is a moveable feast definition wise, whether the bitter and twisted, washed-up, old hacks who compile The Bug’s two media columns like it or not.
A number of news outlets have described Usman Khawaja’s claim in his new book that all the Aussie Test team were aware of the use of sandpaper in Cape Town as a revelation.
Some of our media compilers still believe, silly old dears that they are, that a revelation means the revealing of a truth.
The widespread use of revelation this week suggests that silly old shit has left the dock and just maybe has sailed away completely, overtaking the likes of “hunkered down” as it disappeared over the horizon.
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