Friggin Nice One, Channel 10

For my first real post I thought I'd have a go at the Australian media. A fat juicy target for the slinging of pies of crankiness, to be sure.

Last night Channel 10 (and the other TV stations) ran a breaking story: Someone had secretly captured video of the opening ceremony rehearsal for the Beijing Olympics, and posted it up to youtube. And the Chinese authorities were pissed.

Now, ok, some little South Korean journalist twat wants to film some Chinese prancing about on his phone cam and upload to youtube. Don't care. I won't go into how, IMHO, the Chinese government and Olympic organisers have every right to be pissed. I won't go into how it was a gross violation of the trust placed in the journos that they would not spill the beans early. I won't comment on how many people had worked extremely hard, and the Chinese government (i.e. the people) spent a lot of money, to wow the a world with a spectacular show which will now be a flop because the world has seen it already.

Honestly, care_factor = 0.

But what got right up my schnoz was Channel 10's reaction to the story. For during every ad break from 7pm till the late news, we were subjected to an unending sequence of misleading "breaking news" teasers; we had to look at fathead anchor Sandra Silly barfing deceptively with lines such as:

"The shocking Olympics video"
"The video the Chinese authorities don't want you to see"
"The Chinese government is in an uproar"
"Embarrassment over a video"

The connotations of these sound bites is obvious. They were supposed to stir in us, the viewers, all the cliches that have been built over the years about Chinese authority: Thug cops beating down on protesters, doors being kicked in, news cameras being confiscated, skinny old professors in prison, book burnings, tanks rolling through public squares, etc.

What we got, instead, was a spoiler for the Olympics opening ceremony.

Pretty freakin' lame, Channel 10 and the other TV stations.

The worst part is, all the TV stations, as well as news.com and all the rest, then went and aired the video. Rather than showing a modicum of respect and sensitivity to the Olympic organisers, they plastered the pirated thing for everyone to see.

Way to spoil everyone's day, dickheads.

All this, of course, comes on the heels of the stories of China blocking certain websites. The poor journos over there were in an uproar over that one. There were charges of human right violations, freedom of information and the like, which only served to bolster the connotations I mentioned earlier.

But what I want to know is, what are the journos there for anyway? To report on the Olympics or surf the web all day? Ah, you say, but they need the net for information and stuff... Ok, so what did reporters do *before* the net? Oh that's right, they got off their soft arses and pounded the pavement. They left their $500/night hotel rooms and actually got down onto the street, pen and pad in hand, and did some reporting.

Anyway the whole Opening Ceremony video scandal was nothing but an exercise in extreme lameness. Way to go, Australian Media, way to spoil what might have been a great show while at the same time treating your viewers like a pack of drooling cretins. And you, Channel 10, just when I think there's hope after you cancelled that steaming pile of shite called Big Brother.