Sponsor's Message

Every evening I watch TV in the same vain hope.

More often than not however, the result is a poorly compiled digest of pseudo-facts and misinformation.

What on earth is going on with our news media these days and has the arrival of the Net made things better or worse?

TV news has turned into a tabloid-styled collection of fast-food-sized newsbytes that are packaged so as to emphasize the sizzle and almost completely ignore the meat of the story.

"Human interest" stories and stunning revelations that Rachel Hunter has posed nude for Playboy seem to be standard fare on the all-important 6 o'clock bulletin.

"In depth" reporting consists of a few current affairs programmes that tend to allocate about 15 minutes to each very-important story and again have an inordinately strong focus on titillation rather than information.

Hell, I just hate seeing the all-pervasive reality TV/voyeurism approach invading the newsroom.

I'm actually so pleased that Prime TV have launched their 5:30pm bulletin. It manages to fit all the important news into just 30 minutes (rather than an hour) and Suzy Aitken does a very credible job of producing and presenting the bulletin.

However, every time I hear her say "First at 5:30" I feel like throwing the cat at the TV. Forget it Suzy, we all know when your bulletin screens and if that irritating attempt at brainwashing continues, I will give up on Prime's news as well.

Readers Say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums

Even the country's largest newspaper tends to leave out more than it includes when it comes to news reporting and, as suggested by a goodly number of people I know, exhibits more than a little bias in some areas.

Why have the mediums of print and broadcast found it necessary to sink to such a low level?

Hell, even that bastion of credibility and professionalism in news reporting - the BBC - has fallen from its high standards recently, with an almighty thump.

Is it that the IQ of the public has been terminally dulled by a million different home-renovation and Survivor-type programmes. Have we lost the ability to understand big words and concentrate on one thing for more than 30 seconds at a time?

Or could it be that the Net is offering some real competition to print and broadcast news providers?

By logging onto the Net, I can get the very latest news any time of the day or night -- and what's more, I can get it from a news source that is right there in the country where all the action's happening.

Bearing this in mind, have the traditional methods of delivering news become far less important? Perhaps this is why we now have info-tainment rather than news on our screens.

Well I'm afraid that the standards of reporting on the Net aren't much better. I have a *huge* list of links and screen-shots here that show an unbelievably lax attitude to facts, detail, and even proof-reading. Fortunately, I consider this column to an informal commentary rather than "news reporting" so, despite my own shortcomings, I choose to dodge that bullet :-)

I'm not sure why we're now being treated like a nation of knuckle-draggers but I'm not impressed.

Spam Laws on the Way
Radio NZ reports this morning that the government is now preparing to move on the issue of anti-spam legislation -- good news.

Not so good is the fact that they seem to think it important to focus on legislating against local spammers before addressing the issue of some kind of international cooperation. What percentage of the spam in your mailbox could possibly be defined as "local"??

Even more worrying was the DMA's definition of spam as: email you didn't request and which is on a topic which is of no interest to you and from someone with who you have no existing relationship.

What a cunning definition -- but did you notice all those logical AND operators?

It seems that the DMA consider it okay to send you email if any of the defining parameters are FALSE.

So, if you once bought a particular product from a DMA member, does that mean they can spam you forever and a day with more offers for that product because: a) There's an existing relationship and b) you clearly have an interest in that product.

Sorry DMA, MY definition of spam is: *ANY* email you didn't request that touts a product or service.

Forget about using "existing relationships" or "an interest" as a get out of jail free card. If I didn't expressly ask for your pitches by email, you have no right to send them to me and they are definitely spam.

Let's hope our politicians are listening to the people rather than the peddlers on this one.

New Forums!
Yes folks, good news. The grotty ezboard forums have been replaced with a new phpBBS-based system that won't assault you with a myriad of pop-ups and other flotsam.

A big thanks to Managed Internet Solutions for offering to provide this service.

You can access the new forums over at aardvarkforums.co.nz

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!