It has been an amazing week for journalism this week. Between the Bingle/Clarke ’scandal’, the upcoming Anna Nicole opera and the usual shenanigans accompanying the launch of a new Rugby League season, it seems journalists are spoilt for choice. Consider this beautifully-crafted piece from the Tele earlier this week about the Bingle/Clarke upset. That particular piece of news was best covered in yesterday’s Herald by Peter Roebuck, a link to which particular article I cannot locate, but I’ve managed to find another by Roebuck which, again, does justice to both the stupidity and futility of reporters in trying to cover the story, and the true issue which is the reality facing Clarke’s cricket career, and the possible ramifications for Bingle’s modeling life down the track*.
Bottom line: tabloid journalism is even less concerned with the news that matters. It has fallen far below what is considered ‘trash’ and is now almost completely devoted to perpetuating papparazi snaps and ’sources close to the couple say’ hogwash. Even The Age, The Herald, fell into to the same trap this week. As the public eye turns to scandal, such must the broadsheets just to sell papers. I have bemoaned this problem time and again, and my entire university degree was centred around this very issue, but there must be an accountability of the press outside the bottom line. I am predicting, however, that the possibility of any kind of redemption, beyond citizen journalism, is long extinct.
Until next time…
* – I have a feeling this is an early draft of the article I referred to.
