Obscure Box

An American TV news anchor is facing a possible jail term over allegations he hacked into a co-anchor’s e-mail account. Side by side the pair sat in front of cameras for the evening news in Philadelphia no doubt trading all the usual smiles and frowns as the various TV reports were broadcast. Now it’s claimed [...]

The Nine Network’s Lisa Wilkinson needs a quick science (and geography) lesson when it comes to speaking of all things space. On today’s Today show she uttered the following: “Right this moment, millions of miles away, two astronauts have donned their suits and are spacewalking outside the International Space Station.” Hear the utterance for yourself [...]

It was the moment many newsrooms were probably dreading. “I will be making no decisions tonight,” said US Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Grief! Moments earlier she had the newsroom I was in captured, TV sets were tuned in to her live speech and journalists left their desks to go see what she had to [...]

Ever wondered why celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay gets away with swearing so much on TV? Well a report by the University of Queensland’s legal academic Dr Tamara Walsh to the Crime and Misconduct Commission review into the state’s Public Nuisance Offence has some interesting reading. In “NO OFFENCE: The enforcement of offensive language and offensive [...]

All these reports from the US media on the presidential campaign (enough already) has brought to light a new meaningless media cliche. Along with “it remains to be seen” and “only time will tell” is another phrase that allows a reporter to say something when they’re really adding nothing to a story. The US media [...]