The stupidest news headline of the year so far

[fpb]

I find myself bewildered and irritated by the enormous attention paid to the story of an apparently sick whale which seems to have drifted up the Thames. It's all right to find it curious, but all the news programmes - including the super-snooty Channel Four, which fancies itself as the most serious news supplier in the country - have dedicated it enormous slots at the opening of their programs, five-ten minutes each, and all bar one of the national newspapers have placed it on their front page. I find this insane. You may say that the British are crazy about animals, but I do not think they are crazy to the extent of imagining that a sick whale is the world's most important single story. This is not so much a display of native sentimentality, as an insulting reminder of how much the cynical yet ignorant manipulators of the British media despise their readers. No wonder newspaper sales and tv news viewer numbers are falling across the board.

Comments

[enelya-oronar.livejournal.com]

I guess maybe it has not happened before? First I have ever heard of it. I feel bad for the whales. They must be totally confused. Pictures I saw yesterday there were two of them.

Luckily it is early in the year because I am certain there will be many more stupid headlines this year.

;o)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh, I feel for the whales myself. (It is only one that has gone upstream; the other seems to be waiting at the river's mouth.) And I would not object to giving the story some prominence. What I object to would be to give the story the same prominence as if Osama Bin Laden and his entire staff had emerged and announced that they had all converted to Buddhism and were going to spend the rest of their lives as monks.

No pictures=No News. Film at 11

[rfachir.livejournal.com]

I think it's a Brit thing - when the IRA was bombing and people were dying every day, I remember the plight of the police-horse which was injured in a blast kept the headlines for a week.
There isn't any news other than the same old wars, kidnappings, brutal murders and death by fire underground. Blood, pain, smoke, filth, misery - nothing sparkly. Lead story last night on national news was the "possibility" that there would be some disruption of the White House Easter Egg roll. Toothy kids in pretty clothes. From last spring.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I think it's just the British obsession with animals. When those two pigs escaped the slaughterhouse, it was huge news, and everyone was talking about it

[bufo-viridis.livejournal.com]

One of the things which made me a Britophile was the fact that Royal Society for Prevention Cruelty to Animals was established 60 years earlier than National Society for Prevention Cruelty to Children.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Gad, yes. But I still think it is primarily media manipulation and stupidity.