{"id":919,"date":"2014-02-04T08:47:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T19:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=919"},"modified":"2014-03-11T20:24:18","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T07:24:18","slug":"those-lazy-days-of-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=919","title":{"rendered":"Those lazy days of summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SummerSun\"<\/a>Gavin Ellis, astute media commentator and former Editor-in-Chief of The New Zealand Herald, suggested the other day that \u2018list\u2019 articles are just lazy journalism.\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0 But I\u2019m feeling a bit lazy, so here is a list of five things that irk me about newspapers on these sunny days when reporting real news seems to require too much effort.<\/p>\n

One: Misleading headlines<\/b>.\u00a0 Newspaper headlines are famous for their colourful use of the lexicon.\u00a0 \u2018Tot\u2019s tragic tumble while mum romps with boyfriend\u2019.\u00a0 Suitably sensational; and possibly vaguely connected to the not-quite-so-sensational story that follows.<\/p>\n

But what about: \u2018Pedestrians at risk from imminent collapse of landmark\u2019?\u00a0 Read on, and you discover that a) there were no pedestrians within a country mile, b) the building was hardly a landmark, and c) it was never in any danger of collapsing.\u00a0 It seems that the whole story was based on the mutterings of a \u2018sickness beneficiary\u2019 who \u2018hears voices\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018No one from the Council was available for comment.\u2019<\/p>\n

Two: Tenuous connections.<\/b> \u00a0\u2018NZ-registered plane’s landing gear fails\u2019.\u00a0 Yes it was a New Zealand registered plane \u2013a freight plane; so, unfortunately, no passengers \u2013 but it was operated by an Australian company in the Solomon Islands. \u00a0And nobody was even slightly injured.\u00a0 In fact, nothing much happened at all.\u00a0 Damn.\u00a0 But, hey, at least it was a NZ-registered plane.\u00a0 That must count for something.\u00a0 Surely.<\/p>\n

Three: Tenuous celebrity links<\/b>.\u00a0 If the person in the story is someone no one has ever heard of, link them to somebody famous. \u00a0Well, anybody really.\u00a0 \u2018All Black\u2019s cousin hurt in freak accident\u2019.\u00a0 Except the \u2018cousin\u2019 turns out to be a third cousin many times removed.\u00a0 And the All Black was someone no one remembers who played just one non-test midweek match back in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Four: The lone dissenting voice of little consequence<\/b>.\u00a0 Even during the silly season, there is some news that might count as news.\u00a0 But the first reaction of whoever is minding the switch seems to be to find a contrary view.\u00a0 Any contrary view.\u00a0 \u2018School plans deeply flawed\u2019.\u00a0 Says who?\u00a0 A chap, unknown even to his own mother; but willing, for the thrill of seeing his name in print, to disagree with anyone and everyone on just about everything.<\/p>\n

And \u2026 five: yes, lists<\/b>.\u00a0 \u2018Ten things you didn\u2019t know about cheese.\u2019\u00a0 Except a quick read reveals that nine of the things I did know.\u00a0 And the tenth is not actually about cheese.\u00a0 It is about brawn, also known as \u2018head cheese\u2019, made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig, and usually set in aspic.\u00a0 Not a milk solid in sight.<\/p>\n

Oh well \u2026 the cricket season\u2019s almost over.\u00a0 Autumn can\u2019t be far away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gavin Ellis, astute media commentator and former Editor-in-Chief of The New Zealand Herald, suggested the other day that \u2018list\u2019 articles are just lazy journalism.\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0 But I\u2019m feeling a bit lazy, so here is a list of five things … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":920,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions\/920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}