It’s no secret that some sections of the media have a different view of “news value’ than others. Frankly, it must be hard to fill space on a newspaper page, air time on radio or television, but there seem to be too many times when low-hanging fruit gets the nod.
One such example is today’s report in The Age detailing in two paragraphs that former Demon Liam Jurrah was busted in Perth Adelaide for drink driving. A further eleven paragraphs make this look like a story, but it’s not. The padding rehashes ‘news’ that’s so old it’s got worms crawling through it. And for what?
Given Jurrah’s well-publicised legal issues in Alice Springs and subsequent departure from the Demons, and later failure to be drafted, writing and printing this non-story isn’t going to do Jurrah himself any good, and it certainly adds nothing new to everybody else’s knowledge.
Of course the reason it was written and published is that Jurrah’s name draws attention. It’s all about getting eyes looking at advertising. And it’s a pretty poor state of affairs when a young man struggling with a multitude of issues is, to all intents and purposes, exposed to public ridicule for no valid reason.
We’d prefer you don’t click through and read the report, because that just encourages the journalist and this sort of ‘reporting’ shouldn’t be encouraged in any way.
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