I wish I could take credit for that headline but I’m paraphrasing a couple of sub-editors from different print and online media outlets.
In King George’s diary on July 4th 1776 he wrote, “Nothing important happened today”. Considering it took weeks or months for news from the colonies to arrive in London he was of course unaware that the American colonists had revolted against English rule and were in the process of claiming independence from his reign.
Perhaps the same could be written for 13/14th October 2009 because it appears that the biggest story of the day was that a bloke who makes vaccum cleaners is now making fans.
I woke up to this ‘breaking news’ as the lead story on SMH.com and News.com.au. It stayed the feature story for most of the day. Are you kidding me? It’s a product story. It deserves no more pixels than, well, it deserves no pixels. Are editors so stuck for content that press releases for gadgets now count as news.
And now as I wind down for the evening, Fast Company is featuring the product on their homepage. I don’t know who Sir James is paying for this PR hackery but as a news story it sux. And every editor and sub-editor who has contributed to this spin needs to have a rethink about their career and responsibility to their readers.
So very, very sad.