Spam Journalism #67
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article.
Here’s a new category of spam – disaster spam. Seems a little self-defeating to me to try and sensationalise a sensational event, but that does not seem to stop the guys on Stuff:
NZ powerless to help Haiti, says McCully
“New Zealand is in a completely powerless position in earthquake shattered Haiti and is unable to help its own citizens in trouble, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.
“His comments came as he announced a $1 million donation to Haiti “as a starter”.”
Eh? New Zealand cannot help Haiti but McCully is announcing an immediate payment of 1 million dollars and:
“Mr McCully said he had told Secretary Clinton that he had offered New Zealand’s specialist skills in a number of emergency relief and recovery areas.
““We would be happy to supplement US efforts in any way required,” Mr McCully said.”
That doesn’t sound like we are going to do nothing for the earthquake victims of Haiti. Which is what “NZ powerless to help” means.
What McCully actually said was:
““You feel a sense of powerlessness when there is some one in extreme distress,” he said.
““Not only do we have no capacity on the ground there ourselves, others who do have the capacity have had it flattened.””
And you can’t tell me that any journalist would not know that “NZ powerless to help” means something completely different to the personalised, empathic phrase “You feel a sense of powerlessness”…
The plight of the victims of this terrible earthquake is dire enough without trying to sensationalise it or, perhaps, score trite political points. As the body of the article seems reasonable, I assume this is the dismal work of some sub-editor.
It really is hard to get good help…
MacDoctor’s thoughts and prayers go to those who are suffering in the aftermath of this dreadful event. May I suggest to my readers, if you have not already donated, to pop along to the Red Cross site right now and give what you can.
Related posts:
- Spam Journalism #12 Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice...
- Spam Journalism #70 Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice...
- Spam Journalism #65 Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add...
- Spam Journalism #77 Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice...
- Spam Journalism #34 Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add...
