{"id":953,"date":"2014-04-28T12:31:41","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T00:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=953"},"modified":"2014-05-01T16:59:53","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T04:59:53","slug":"politician-eats-two-dogs-for-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=953","title":{"rendered":"Politician eats two dogs for lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HotDog\"<\/a>The news media has always valued attention-grabbing headlines.\u00a0 Why would they not?\u00a0 They grab the reader\u2019s\/viewer\u2019s\/ listener\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

\u2018Superstar in daring rescue.\u2019\u00a0 (Even if the \u2018superstar\u2019 is someone you\u2019ve never ever heard of.)<\/p>\n

\u2018Princess to marry Dustman.\u2019\u00a0 (\u2018Princess\u2019 turns out to be James \u2018Dustman\u2019 Miller\u2019s pet name for 18-year-old Chardonnay Longbottom.)<\/p>\n

\u2018World set to end in four weeks.\u2019\u00a0 (Or is it in 4 million years?\u00a0 Those Mayan prophesies are so hard to figure out.)<\/p>\n

But in this Internet age, things seem to be going from a bit of a stretch to totally ridiculous.\u00a0 And so, under the headline \u2018Politician eats two dogs for lunch\u2019, we might well read:<\/p>\n

\u2018When list MP Joe Rumble made a whistle-stop appearance at Wheeler\u2019s Whopper Dog House, he may have ordered the Double-Dog Special.\u00a0 A single mother-of-three, who asked to be known only as Lynndee, says that she thought that\u2019s what she heard him ask for.<\/p>\n

\u2018Wheeler\u2019s general manager, Hank Harkness, said that the Double-Dog Special \u2013 two hotdogs with sweet mustard pickle and a side of twice-cooked fries \u2013 was one of his restaurant\u2019s most popular lunchtime dishes.\u00a0 However, he was unable to confirm that this was what the politician had ordered.\u2019<\/p>\n

As a growing number of media players scrap over a diminishing pool of advertising and subscription revenue \u2013 and more and more writers are being paid on a \u2018per click\u2019 basis \u2013 the competition for shrill headlines is becoming ever more \u2026 well \u2026 competitive.\u00a0 The fact that the story that follows often fizzles out within a paragraph or three seems not to matter.\u00a0 That initial click\u2019s the thing.\u00a0 And the more clicks, the more chances the writer has of eating that day.<\/p>\n

And it doesn\u2019t stop there.\u00a0 If the original non-story gets a bit of traction, it\u2019s usually not too long before other publications\/blogs\/TV channels begin reporting on the report.\u00a0 Often, they don\u2019t even bother to go back to the original source.\u00a0 Often they can\u2019t afford to.\u00a0 Instead, they slap up a bold headline saying \u2018Politician eats dogs\u2019, followed by a paragraph that begins: \u2018Dogs are on the menu for far-right politician Joe Rumble, according to reports.\u2019\u00a0 (\u2018According to reports\u2019 sort of gets them off the hook.\u00a0 Hey, don\u2019t shoot us.\u00a0 We\u2019re only the messengers.)<\/p>\n

Oh dear.\u00a0 I really do hope that someone works out a way to pay for proper journalism before we are all driven off the cliff of despair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news media has always valued attention-grabbing headlines.\u00a0 Why would they not?\u00a0 They grab the reader\u2019s\/viewer\u2019s\/ listener\u2019s attention. \u2018Superstar in daring rescue.\u2019\u00a0 (Even if the \u2018superstar\u2019 is someone you\u2019ve never ever heard of.) \u2018Princess to marry Dustman.\u2019\u00a0 (\u2018Princess\u2019 turns out … 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":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}