Comments on: Welcome to your daily tranquiliser of news

By: Kieren

Kieren — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:25:14 +0000

You’ve got to be kidding me. This isn’t news. One of the best of many definitions of news is: “Something you want to tell someone else.”

In this strange new bubble Internet world, the media appears to be confusing information for news. And boring the hell out of everyone as it does so. Lotus Eaters, I tell you.

Kieren

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:19:25 +0000

They seem like perfectly legit stories to me. Not hugely interesting, but still… Better than silly surveys

By: Kevin Murphy

Kevin Murphy — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 18:54:44 +0000

Maybe.

By: Kieren

Kieren — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 23:07:45 +0000

Or “know”, even.

By: Kieren

Kieren — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 23:06:58 +0000

Okay, this is it, now I *really* now you’re winding me up.

Kieren

By: Kevin Murphy

Kevin Murphy — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:10:01 +0000

Allow me to make some ludicrously self-regarding counterpoints.

Surely these would be One Step Ahead stories.

I would say there’s substantial informational value in some of these stories.

If you’re a consumer electronics buyer you may make a future purchasing decision based in part on which laptop or DVD vendors plan to bring out which products, rather than buying something today that may be obsolete in a few months.

If you’re a Nissan competitor, there’s value in knowing what the opposition is up to, so you can plan accordingly.

You could make a case that lazy reporters waste too much time writing up PR-announced stories, or that they don’t dig deep enough into them, but I think that’s a different debate.