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Name: Antony Loewenstein
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Monday, October 17, 2005

The world stops

Road to Surfdom discusses the superficiality of the Australian media:

"Apparently a woman from Tasmania who lives in Denmark had a baby. The Latham diaries are so last week. Or was it the week before?"

Tim Dunlop has a point. The Sydney Morning Herald features the couple on its front page, its London-based correspondent, James Button, has been sent to Copenhagen, and vacuousness is turned into "news":

"The new prince of Denmark will sleep 'within an arm's length' of his parents, Crown Prince Frederik has told reporters at Copenhagen's central hospital, where his wife, Crown Princess Mary, is recovering after the birth of the couple's first child on Saturday morning.

"As speculation turned to when the baby would be first shown in public - possibly not until Wednesday or Thursday - Prince Frederik's delight dominated Danish media coverage.

"Prince Frederik, who cut the umbilical cord, said he shed a tear at the birth. 'You don't stand there and act like Superman,' he told the newspaper BT."

An Australian woman has a child. She lives in Denmark and has married into royalty. The birth has no impact on Australia whatsoever.

Celebrity culture is not news. But then, the Sydney Morning Herald is increasingly not serious about real news. Its website leads with "Who makes Sydney's A-List?"

4 Comments:

Blogger Antony Loewenstein said...

It's a two way street, to be sure. But for editors to simply say, 'readers demand this' isn't good enough. Many people perhaps wouldn't want to read about death in Iraq - and indeed, we do read less about this - but all depends on your defintion of media and its role.

And, "Lowy" is, well, all very 1992 for me.

Monday, October 17, 2005 12:35:00 pm  
Blogger Antony Loewenstein said...

Could be interesting, and I wish I could provide that,but alas, time and resources...

Monday, October 17, 2005 1:09:00 pm  
Blogger Pete said...

Look sex sells.

And I have a suspicion that Fred and Mary (but not the perpetual Virgin Mary) have had SEX at least once.

Monday, October 17, 2005 4:53:00 pm  
Blogger unique_stephen said...

Let us eat our cake, it's a royal birth. But I must say - royal or not, she's so..... Womans Weekly... so dull.

Monday, October 17, 2005 5:44:00 pm  

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