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The day the news died

Regular readers will know that for a long time I have complained about the quality of journalism in this country.

The old image of the hack reporter slaving over a typewriter after hours in the field, meticulously and relentlessly dredging up facts for an in-depth report are long gone.

The modern reporter sorts a bin of press releases into order of "clickbait quotient" and then adds his byline before filing directly to the web or print.

Newspapers aren't interested in the facts, they're only interested in the money.

Sure, profits have always been a motivator for news publishers but profits have been driven by the quality of the journalism that fills the pages with the content advertisers seek to be placed alongside.

Sadly, good journalists and good journalism are now a rarity. The population has become dumbed down so much that they'd rather read about the Kardashians or their favourite soap opera than find out exactly what's going on in Aleppo or in our own parliament.

And now Stuff has set a new benchmark in abandoning the standards that once made the Fourth Estate such a valuable part of our society.

I refer to this article by Pat Pilcher.

Now I know Pat and I'm sure he didn't set out to create the results that we see on this page but it has to be said -- this is little more than an advertisement for Stuff's own UFB service.

Is it a coincidence that in the comparison chart included in the article, Stuff comes out streets ahead once factors such as contract term, fees and cost/month are combined?

Of course it's not.

You can bet your bottom dollar that if this piece wasn't highly favourable towards Stuff's offering, it would never have seen the light of day.

But does the article tell the whole truth?

I think the disclaimer that states: "Several ISPs offered deals to existing mobile users, but these discounts were not included to avoid distorted comparisons" gives a good hint.

Who doesn't have a mobile these days?

Surely, if having a mobile plan with an ISP will significantly reduce the cost of the UFB service they provide, this is a very important factor and something that very much should have been included in the article.

Is it just coincidence that this was left out because Stuff doesn't offer mobile services and therefore would have been seen to be decidedly uncompetitive with those far more attractive offerings?

Of course.

This is one of the worst bits of covert marketing masquerading as an objective article for a long, long time and it really does call into question the veracity of everything you read in Stuff.

Pat may not have knowingly set out to plug the publisher's products, but he has.

Once those special deals that some ISPs will offer if you're also using their mobile service are factored in, Stuff is unlikely to be the hands-down winner, as purported in this piece and, given that I suspect a significant percentage of the population are benefiting from such a plan, this piece is perhaps hideously deceptive and biased.

I recall when Fairfax owned TradeMe that we'd see endless stories about the online auction site. Now they've sold, we see virtually nothing.

In my honest opinion, Stuff no longer qualifies for the title "news publisher" and what little news content it carries often comes straight out of Australia.

Heaven help us if/when APN and Fairfax become one (shudder).

And Pat, feel free to leave a response in the forums (because I know you read this column from time to time). I'd love to hear your side of the story.

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