Wednesday, August 06, 2008

WOOF! WOOF! HOLD THE FRONT PAGE


Is it me or are our newspapers bereft of news these days, I just chanced upon a couple of copies, as a "for instance" of our oldest journal the Gazette. Now I concede that rarely has this paper held the same interest or newsyness as the national papers but come on, Front Page, Donkey's followed the next week by Moose the St Bernard, who for his crimes, has had his nuts chopped off!

Admittedly the Donkey Story (Thom Morris), a week or so later, turned up last night, on BBC South East News and might yet get the Newsnight treatment, but the following week we were offered, not one animal story but pretty much a whole menagerie, with a three page spread, on pages one, two and three, not just Moose the St Bernard, but references to Kestrels, Sparrow Hawks, Donkeys and not least Panthers or Black Leopards roaming around Kingsgate.

But hold on that's not all, as the shopping channels like to remind us, further in we got more dickie birds, PETS FACTOR competition and finally plain jane, who for once is, barking up the right blimin tree, with her article on dog control, which had a bit more bite than usual.

Now I know animal welfare is a big issue to some, including my MP but really, the only saving grace in my opinion was that Rebecca Smith (editor) who earlier failed to corral last weeks animal stories into a less prominent position, at least managed to confine her comment column to the more important issues ie Mr Ezekiel's support for tourism, as his administration takes away support from local museums.

PS Mr Puss, has indicated that he will not be entering the Pets Factor competition, as he is convinced, that such competitions are exploitative and in the worse case scenario contestants can be portrayed in a rather humiliating fashion. Still he got rather miffed when I suggested it was nothing to do with the fact he might knocking on a bit.

PPS Mr Puss also thought it best if we didn't mention Bob the leopard, rescued from a market in Majorca, Still I think he might be right on that one! Imagine all that damn press interest and that crowd from Kent Big Cat Research



4 comments:

  1. Well, it is the silly season, so-called but I would have thought the paper could have given some more thought to the serious issues of the day. But, hey, the Gazette has always supported the Tories in power so we can hardly expect a genuine attempt to cover the state of Thanet etc.

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  2. Why isn't Mr Puss on the front page of the Gazette? I think we should be told!

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  3. The London Times has the donkey story, obviously Thom has some future talant.

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  4. If I were a paper based reporter with nothing to talk about (given we are in silly season) I think I would be watching the local bloggers for a whiff of a story. It seems we are currently doing a far better job.

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