They might use Australian subs all the time on what remains of Fleet Street, but underneath they really do think we are ignorant peasants.
Roy Greenslade, bless him, has given some stick to The Mail on Sunday for a stupid and insensitive piece of coverage of our bushfires. The paper ran a picture of a fire truck driving away from a maelstrom of smoke and flame under the heaadline “Er, Bruce…the fire’s the other way!” Greenslade’s comment: “an insensitive way to report on a tragedy”.
“Memo to MoS editor Peter Wright: Er, would this be a good time to explore subbing being outsourced to Australia?
UPDATE: Mumbrella has been on to the Mail on Sunday editor asking for an apology and explanation. See the post here.
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“In-house” jokes used to be reserved for sporting events and the arts, but now it seems content producers have been deliberately desensitised and exist in another world where real human tragedies mean nothing and everything has become some sort of game. It is insensitive, often clumsy, and its producers probably need retraining. Creative writing has a place, and it is not in the news.
I was disgusted by the crass and insensitive MoS coverage of the bushfire disaster, although not completely surprised, as this publication has long been reviled by rightminded people as utter trash.
I was, however, surprised and saddened by the title of this post, ‘Stupid Poms,’ which seems to be guilty of the same lazy chauvinistic sensationalism it deplores in the Mail on Sunday.
This pathetic ‘us and them’ bigotry is outmoded and futile – and who perpetuates it? I’m left with the feeling that a better title would have been ‘Stupid journalists’.
Do you really have to use the headline Stupid Poms? Are you trying to be ironical? It destroys the point of your post.
I did not mean to imply that all Poms are stupid. After all, Greenslade is a Pom, and so, for that matter, am I. (Dual citizenship. Emigrated to Australian in childhood). However, the Poms who put this particular story together are certainly stupid. In fact that is a mild word to use, compared to some that occur. In the context it is fair enough to say it straight.
I have just been made aware of this article. I am sick to my stomach. It is disgusting! I am the Bruce that the article refers to. I was in charge of the tanker that day and was sitting in the front. We spent over 18 hours battling blazes and to have some ignorant prick write this article about us and the CFA is sickening.
Bruce