Still, the wild but mild weather did allow me to get out into the garden this afternoon to clear some more dead stuff – a job that would have been done in the autumn if the Arctic Circle hadn’t moved south before it was finished.
Talking of the wind, it’s been reaching intimidating ferocity tonight. And a man was killed not far from here when a tree fell on his car. The news report said it was a silver Mercedes. Why? In what way is the make and colour of the car germane to the story of a man being killed by a tree? The media do that, don’t they?
Blonde, twenty five-year-old Ms Prendergast told reporters...
The fact that Ms Prendergast is blonde and aged twenty five rarely has anything whatever to do with the story. And have you noticed that they don’t mention her hair colour if she’s a brunette or redhead, only if she’s blonde?
See. Trivial.
4 comments:
I think it adds color. At least the silver mercedes does... sort of tells you what kind of person the man was. The blonde thing... must be in England because here they don't bother mentioning the hair color. More frequently, they interview people so that the public can make their own decisions...
So does that make the fact that he was killed by a tree in some way more interesting?
Oh, they interview plenty of people here, too. That's usually when I switch off.
I've also noticed that they only mention the hair colour if it's a woman under about thirty.
I once say a movie where it was about the brutality and idiocy of the media. And the whole message was "if it bleeds, it leads." Irresponsibility and ignorance run rampant with stories like this. It's like they want people either to identify with the victim more and try to manipulate the readers feelings. I hate when they do that. Jerk offs!
One of the best Brit TV sitcoms ever took just that line, Wendy. It was called Drop the Dead Donkey.
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