Australian readers, while delighted to hear that Oz had hit the number one BBC and ITV News spots with the Qantas A380 story last week, have been dismayed that it took a negative story to achieve that.
Sorry folks but it's an introduction to the Media, and not only the British ones. They don't do good news. Anything without the words "Shock, Horror, Chaos, Debacle, Scandal" doesn't grab the audience's attention. The British are though probably at the extreme edge of misery spectrum. We really don't do good news. This is the country where "Mustn't grumble" means "I'm feeling really great/am deliriously happy/am superby fit or "Everything's going really well". To get number one news slot here two things must happen simultaneously.First UK Plc is,- most unusually,- not in the poo, or at least not enough in the poo.Second,- you are,- and in a big way.Normally the top British news item, however trivial, will see the rest of the world shuffled down the pack. The Chilean mineworkers rescue broke through not because it was going superbly well but because the media pack was camped around the top of the tiny shaft waiting for that bullet thing to get stuck. Happily they were disappointed so had to run with the very good news story.Don't get carried away though folks. It was a one-off and business is now back to usual. Unless you down under can come up with a big hit like "Uranium Deposits make all Australians Radio Active", it is likely to be a while before you hit the jackpot again.
