Courier-Mail’s Bligh blight. Yesterday, the parents of murdered child Daniel Morcombe joined Queensland Premier Anna Bligh in announcing the Morcombes as child safety ambassadors, in which they will travel around the state working with kids. It was big news in Queensland and all major TV and radio stations covered the story. And so did the state’s major metropolitan newspaper The Courier Mail, in its own unique way …
Confined to the Courier-Mail‘s “Confidential” section (well it was also mentioned in the closing paragraph in a story on page 10), the newspaper’s coverage chose to not focus on the Morcombe’s ambassadorship but instead on Bligh’s choice of clothing, asking “Did Anna Bligh get dressed in the dark yesterday, or is she just being fashion forward … er … backwards?”
On the Courier-Mail‘s website, in its “Confidential” section, you can can also compare how Bligh’s fashion choice compares to other “wardrobe malfunctions”:
Enlightening.
Front page of the day. Dominique Strauss-Kahn flees the US after the s-xual assault case against him was dropped. Queue New York Daily News pun …
The Department of Corrections. And now you know how much food a white-tailed deer consumes a year. From today’s Cumberland Times-News, all the way from Maryland, USA:
Media strive to cover 9/11 without seeming to exploit a tragedy
“Anniversaries are hard to resist for most media outlets. The stories are evergreen, the advertising potential plentiful. But in documenting the 10th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks, there is a fine line between commemoration and exploitation.” — New York Times
Ten years later: new video of flight 93 aftermath surfaces
“It is remarkable that, ten years later, new video from 9/11 has just surfaced. On CNN Sunday night, anchor Susan Hendricks introduced a piece of video from a now-deceased witness who videotaped the aftermath of heroic Flight 93 from about 15 miles away.” — Mediaite
News, Fairfax to dodge Rugby World Cup bans
“Australian journalists will sidestep official channels to cover the Rugby World Cup, using contacts to deal directly with players and coaches, and doing interviews outside the boundaries of official World Cup venues, amid a stand-off between Australia’s major newspaper publishers and the International Rugby Board.” — The Australian
Foxtel signs new deals with Seven, Nine and Ten
“Foxtel has signed deals with Free to Air networks to acquire new programmes. The first-time deals with Seven and Ten follow similar arrangements for new shows with Nine.” — TV Tonight
Re. Anna Bligh and also the reception Gillard’s been getting recently, it seems to me that Australia has some big problems with taking female leaders seriously and/or subjecting them to scrutiny that would never happen to male leaders.
Except here in the ACT… We’re onto our third female Chief Minister (in just over twenty years of self-government) and there’s stuff-all of that sort of thing here. Are we just more mature or less macho in Canberra?
Whatever, IMHO if this is an example of Canberra being out of touch with the rest of Australia, long may it remain so!
Yet another example from The Courier-Mail illustrating why its premium use is to line pets’ litter boxes.