Who says it’s grim up north?
Completely unrelated to anything, but I just glanced at BBC Manchester’s latest headlines, which are displayed on Mancubist’s sidebar:
- Man dies three days after attack
- Hospital gun threat man is jailed
- Officer injured in robber arrest
- Police name family killed on M6
- Man guilty over birthday murder
- Stab man guilty of manslaughter
Is it too much to ask for a good news story just once in a while? Apparently so…
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8 Comments so far
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With you on this one. Both on NW Tonight and the ‘original modern’ radio station of BBC Manchester there’s just nothing of substance, just crime and titillation. Maybe that’s why Manchester Confidential, in between the promos and the reviews, has made such a good play of including intelligent commentary, features etc…
By Steve Connor on 10.22.08 6:16 am
It’s not that they want to print bad news: they’re just being lazy.
This is slightly understating things, but all you’re looking at is:
Phone call to police press office.
Court report from court reporter.
Phone call to police press office.
Phone call to police press office.
Court report from court reporter.
Court report from court reporter.
It’s the lack of journalistic variety that offends me, not the tone.
By Fat Roland on 10.22.08 8:28 am
“Lancaster resident’s shed to be delivered ahead of schedule. Resident reports feelings of mild excitement.”
Good news somehow doesn’t have the same ring of newsworthiness, does it?
By Tim on 10.22.08 10:13 am
But surely in a city of this size, some news is good news… (See what I did there?)
By Mancubist on 10.22.08 10:21 am
Granted, not a great selection of stories at that particular snapshot of that particular day. But comments like Fat Rolaand’s makes my blood fucking boil. I’m sure someone who works on a news website would love to sit around pondering their next big journalistic investigation, but this isn’t the 70s and the chances are there will be some overpaid tosser in an office somewhere asking why they haven’t written their 10 stories for that day…
By Lazy journalist on 10.22.08 9:46 pm
LJ: I was speaking as a former journalist myself, and, um, well, yes my comment was unfair. Journalists work bloody hard.
I still hate court reports, though.
The particular overpaid tosser to which I was answerable had, I recall, an alarming number of curry stains on his chair. Oddly, I never saw him eating the stuff.
By Fat Roland on 10.23.08 9:21 pm
Ooh Tim, are you getting a shed? That’s quite exciting.
By yankunian on 10.24.08 11:53 am
FR: Your comment is much appreciated. I am currently working bloody hard… on trying to get out of journalism.
I’ll let you into a secret – I hate court reports too.
By Lazy journalist on 10.24.08 9:52 pm
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