Obscure Box

The Australian's Media section today carries a report on media commentator and former newspaper editor Roy Greenslande.

Trouble is, the newspaper the newspaper claims he edited doesn't exist.

"Greenslade is a former editor of London's Daily Mirror..."

There is no such thing. As a kid growing up in Yorkshire I remember my parents buying a newspaper called the Daily Mirror so quite clearly that one reflected more than just the news from London.

Time and again the names of the UK's national newspapers are given a capital city prefix so you hear about the "London Times" or the "London Guardian". Again, no such thing, these are national newspapers.

Here in Australia there's no such newspaper as the "Brisbane Courier-Mail" or a "Melbourne Age" yet you hear them mentioned all the time.

Maybe I should start a new trend and start talking about the "Sydney 7.30 Report" or the "Sydney AM" program. Or is that "Canberra AM" program? Sounds like it sometime.