Nonsense stories - are they really newsworthy?

R

RMCF

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Its probably just the modern era when space on websites etc has to be filled, but I have recently started to notice a lot of plain silly stories on reputable websites that I honestly think are just filling.

Here's couple of examples, and from the supposedly upmarket, intelligent BBC, one of the most revered corps in the world.

1) A French woman was billed 12 quadrillion Euro for a phone bill. It was waivered (you don't say!). Ok so is this really the first time a computer glitch caused something like this to happen? I very much doubt it, but in the past we didn't feel the need to tell the world about it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19908095

2) A couple of halfwits rip down walls in their house to find a beeping noise, that turned out to be a fire alarm needing a battery.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-19921055

Are they just filling space or supplying what the masses want to read?
 
If that's what the masses want to read, then there isn't much hope for humanity! Joking aside, the Sindo online also seems to be full of nonsensical stories lately, a line of journalism they once stead clear of.
 
Sindo these days seems to be merely a vehicle to peddle pointless photos and "gossip" about Rosanna Davison et al. Utter rubbish paper.
 
Let's be honest - the number of people who read the Irish Times is dwarfed by readers of absolute rubbish like Star,Mirror and others that contain no news at all.

I know that I, along with my erudite fellow posters, am far more knowledgable, intelligent and generally superior to buyers of those rags - and yet they have the same vote as me. Bloody democracy !
 
Don't you think our broadsheets have nosedived also?

A lot of irresponsible journalism, especially in Sunday editions. One sub headline I read today was - At Long Last, We Are About to Spring From The Property Trap.
I'll believe that when I see it!

A great sales ploy but a dagger to the heart of every NE mortgage holder in this country, me included, when they realize AGAIN that the media have spun them another pipe dream.
 



I try not to read the Irish Times too much; my head gets light and starts t spin up there in that rarefied air at the top of moral superiority mountain.
If you don’t do the climb then it’s hard to hear what they are saying as they preach down to the masses.
I come away realising what a flawed person I am and how if only we were as perfect and pure and the IT columnists I would be a better person and the world would be a better place.
Unfortunately, unlike them, I am not perfect and am subject to human frailties and weaknesses.
 


I know quite a lot of successful fellows and ladies alike who read the rags. They might not be happy to hear that you are far more superior than they! Then again, they might read the Times too to balance it all out!
 
username123 said:
Sindo these days seems to be merely a vehicle to peddle pointless photos and "gossip" about Rosanna Davison et al. Utter rubbish paper.
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I never buy it anymore. There is actually something very depressing about that paper; full of tacky people, useless 'celebs', young ones with degrees in journalism and absolutely no life experience giving us the benefit of their wisdom on how we should all be living our lives. And don't start me on Brendan O'Connor.....
 
The main headline on the Irish Times on Saturday really annoyed me.

It was a reference to Irish woman Emma O'Reilly who once worked for Lance Armstrong and was involved in the doping regime described in the USADA report published last week.

I have been paying attention to this story for a number of years and heave read and heard what Paul Kimmage and David Walsh have had to say about it. I know that Emma O'Reilly was complicit in the deceit, but has since made every effort to disclose the truth and has suffered and been bullied and defamed by Armstrong and his acolytes.

A casual reading of Saturday's headline might have led others, who are less familiar with the details, to conclude that Emma O'Reilly was one of the ringleaders in the deception.

This was not the case and, whatever her level of involvement, she has earned the right to not be labelled in the same terms as Armstrong.

This story is not a front page headline story. It is one that belongs in the sports pages and maybe in an opinion column.
 
Daily Mail smartphone ap - all the quality stories you'll ever need!

I am now up-to-date with all my celeb gossip!
 
liaconn said:
young ones with degrees in journalism and absolutely no life experience giving us the benefit of their wisdom on how we should all be living our lives....
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Bloody youngin's, no respect for their elders "wisdom" anymore. Cheek of them using their education to get a job. Do they not know that one must live a life full prior to having an opinion??

Had the very same when a young doctor told me to lay off the fried breakfast and Aftons, why my old doctor used to smoke 30 a day and advise a fried slice for my shortness of breadth.

Why when I were a lad.....
 
Going slightly off topic but more or less in the same vein ....

I find most of the radio stations on my preset mostly talk rubbish these days.

The stations (like 2fm) that have dual presenters talk such rubbish between them. The annoying banter from Éanna Ní Lamhna/Breda O'Donoghue drives me mad as well.

Moncrief is another guy who rattles on about nothing.

Are there any good radio stations out there anymore? .....
 
Nova/Phantom are the only decent radio stations about IMO. Not sure are they Dublin only though. Nova is by far my favourite
 
I guess as online versus traditional news finds its feet (as a business) we'll have this issue.

It's prevalent for all online news sources and not just the "respected" ones and is probably one of the weaknesses of online versus traditional. Unfortunately, in most cases, the success and indeed value (advertising revenue) of a site is largely based on number of hits and so often get stories that are pure "link bait" just to get people in and hitting the website.

People will click on a newstory that says someone was handed a whopping bill for a mobile phone, so they'll always use them. And people will always read them and then tweet the links or link on facebook or share via email.

There's limited space in a printed paper and people are more inclined to spend more time reading a newspaper than an online source where it is the shorter stories and analysis that gets the most views and of course people want to see it reguarly updated with new stories rather than being prepared to have one issue refreshed every 24 hrs.

That being said, I do actually agree, I hate the creeping link bait that is spreading through an industry that just doesn't understand online media and is trying to attach an old revenue model to it.
 

Oh give over. If you want to take wise advice on affairs of national and international importance from someone barely out of college fine, but I don't expect to find them being presented as the fount of all knowledge in a national newspaper. There was a time you had to gain experience as a cub reporter before you were given free rein with your opinions or allowed to write analytical articles on the politics of the day all over the paper.
 
username123 said:
Nova/Phantom are the only decent radio stations about IMO. Not sure are they Dublin only though. Nova is by far my favourite
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Used to listen to Phantom in the mornings, don't bother now that Richie McCormack has left, Pearl on Sunday mornings was also great, she's gone now too. Nothing to listen to live, so either podcasts (this american life or all songs considered (through tunein app)) or my own tunes or sometimes Lyric.
 
What about the junk put out by FM104, the Adrian Kennedy Show. I cringe listening to it.
 
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