Could Ruth Brown be any more sneeringly dismissive of news.com.au in this Crikey story from last Friday: http://www.crikey.com.au/Media-Arts-and-Sports/20081212-Pnis-in-a-park-bench-Newscomaus-top-journalism-for-2008.html? Far be it from me to leap to the defence of the site, but her implication that because only one “serious” political story made it onto their top 100 most viewed stories for the year somehow makes news.com.au less valid as a news site, says less about that particular news outlet and more about Crikey’s own disappearing-up-its-own-arse seriousness. And it also probably says something about our political leaders’ failure to effectively engage people.
And another thing: ABC2’s otherwise excellent ABC News Breakfast show plied the depth of smugness last Friday when Virginia Trioli and the show’s political correspondent smirked their way through a report about Zoo Weekly’s campaign to get Democrat senator Kate Ellis to pose for the mag. Again, I’m not typically inclined to defend Zoo, but it does actually speak to that demographic of working class male in a way that other media, ABC News Breakfast included, can’t. Also: ABC News Breakfast is watched by about 10,000 people. Zoo’s readership? More than half a million. So there.
