Popular Culture is not News

What is it… is it just me? 10,000 people have died in Burma apparently from a Cyclone nobody heard about and yet the most pressing things in todays press are: 1. Wayne Carey’s charge sheet, 2. Corey goes into the BB House and 3. Mischa Barton has cellulite and is pressing action against the Aussie paparazzi who took the photos of her topless.

I have seen the photos Mischa and what is it they say… a picture’s worth a 1000 words?

I know I am beating on this old drum again, but the internet has so much more beneficial use and people can access all the celeb-goss they want, but can we at least leave the NEWS websites for items that are NEWS WORTHY? It’s a chicken and egg thing… people will tell you that stories like Mischa Barton earn the most clicks and hence are the most “profitable” in the web-advertising area but I counter that with if you keep putting this stuff on the top of the site in bold, then of course its going to get the most clicks...

Case in point, this mornings front page of smh.com.au shows that the #1 story is Wayne Carey... rocketing in at 9:24am as "Breaking News". At 9:44am, the story of the deaths of 10,000 Burmese people comes in, but doesnt displace Wayne Carey nor the picture lead story that some guy sued for the right to take his wife's surname as his own.



See what I mean... and then look at the picture news below... Tom Cruise, Kylie Minogue, a washed up footballer, Tom Hanks and a general "Mag Watch"... all very very important stuff.

And I thought the Sydney Morning Herald, and its sister paper in Melbourne The Age were supposed to be the daily papers that prided themselves on journalism...