Friday 12 July 2019

Wednesday 10 July 2019

Maybe misdemeanours


Grafton’s Daily Examiner has been very creative in recent times with the introduction of a new feature that’s being displayed on its website.
The average reader will not have the luxury of seeing all the details in the new regular section because it’s hidden by the paper’s paywall - only subscribers get to see it. Subscribers can scroll down the online page and see a heading like this one.

Really, does the local paper have so many slow news days that it thinks it’s on a winner with its latest “innovation”.
A contributor to the paper’s letter section has expressed an opinion about the paper’s strategy(see below).


Concern over court lists

I am distressed to see The Daily Examiner listing people going to court each day.

I think this is not appropriate. These people are facing up to situations that will be addressed by the court. They do not need or deserve to be named and shamed in public, without any context.

There are many reasons people end up in court. I don’t think it’s appropriate that merely for attending a court hearing they are named in the newspaper. Fine if their issue becomes newsworthy. But the mere fact of them appearing is not sufficient to justify public interest. In fact it could be severely damaging.

Fiona Hardie, Tullymorgan

Perhaps the paper could examine a couple of other topics to more gainfully occupy their journalists’ time. A couple that spring to mind are waiting times at the A&E departments of local hospitals and supermarket checkouts.

Source: The Daily Examiner, July 9, 2019, print edition and webpage

Credit to my mate Elwyn, who doesn’t miss a trick, for providing a heads up for this post.

Tuesday 9 July 2019

Monday 8 July 2019

Australian Women’s Cricket XI does it again


The Australian Women’s Cricket XI comprehensively defeated England in the third ODI played at St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury. England won the toss and elected to field. Australia scored 7/269 in their 50 overs and then bundled out England for just 75 in only 32.5 overs. Player of the match was Australia’s Ellyse Perry with her match-winning bowling performance, taking 7/22 off her 10 overs.

Australia's victory means they lead England by six points to nil and the hosts must win the four-day Test match, worth four points, starting on July 18, and then win at least two of the remaining three T20s - and lose none - in order to wrest the Ashes from the tourists.


Read ESPNCRICINFO’s match report along with the ball-by-ball commentary and the scorecard here.


War games - how oxymoronic!


Many media reports, including this one and this one, about military events in Queensland and the Northern Territory involving about 25,000 military personnel from Australia and the United States, along with Japanese and New Zealand military “assets” and personnel, are describing the events as “war games”.

Seriously, “war games” is right up there with “military intelligence” at the top of the list of classic oxymorons.

Just the mention of “war games” causes this bloke to see red.

C’mon journos, it’s lazy journalism. Drop it like a red-hot potato.