IT'S Tuesday as I write, and as often happens, I am confused and possibly concerned. Alert AND alarmed, even.
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Every Australian TV channel, every radio station, every capital city newspaper is awash, agog and all aflutter with the “news” that the very picturesque Duchess Kate is pregnant again.
Every one. No exception. Even the ABC which is usually a little aloof from such weird infatuations has been gushing like a fire hydrant, interviewing “experts” on when the baby would be born and what it might be named and what it’ll mean for the republican movement etc etc etc.
But, guess where such mindless fluff was NOT evident? Yep, Britain.
I checked the brilliantly precise and sober BBC News website and here’s what I’ve just seen (from the top story of the day down): “Iraq Swears In Unity Government, Liberia faces Huge Ebola Surge, Ukraine Rebels Free 1200 Captives, The Child Victims of Ukraine Violence, On a Rescue Boat in Flood-Hit Pakistan, Performers Stage Times Square Protest, Thousands Homeless in Favela Fire ….”
Then, eight stories into the morning’s news wrap, we get “Royal Couple Thrilled Over Pregnancy”.
The Times of London had it as its sixth story, behind a British Labor leadership stoush, the likelihood of Britain joining in air strikes against ISIS, airport chaos as Russia reacts to sanctions, a soccer story and the latest on the sad case of parents taking their ill child to Spain.
Someone got on Twitter and remarked: “Kate Middleton’s having a good heir day.”
Within most of those Australian TV bulletins, the anchors then threw “live” to banks of reporters, commentators and “experts” in Britain.
One commentator claimed Kate’s dad had personally written “a line” to him about the happy pregnancy. (Yeah, sure.)
Another said he’d been speculating “for months” that Kate was pregnant, overlooking what the family themselves had just said about her being well within her first trimester, so that – at best – the poor woman had been pregnant for just three months.
What is it about Australian journalism and its inability to stop its brains from collectively fizzing when there’s a royal wedding or a baby in the wind?
I agree it was a genuine story, but THE story of the day? Really? The also splendid CNN news site out of America also maintained some sense of dignity – despite Australian media saying the world had “royal baby fever” less than three hours after the pregnancy was announced.
To my mind, there was only one interesting reaction to the news. Someone got on Twitter and remarked: “Kate Middleton’s having a good heir day.”
It is going to be a long few months. Especially in Australia.
