Friday July 11, 2008 at 9:17
“The director of the body, based in one of New York, Washington or an agreeable Western European city, was speaking at its annual conference, at which ministers from around the world gather to wring their hands impotently
about the most fashionable issue of the day. The organisation has
sought to justify its almost completely fruitless existence by joining
its many fellow talking-shops in highlighting whatever crisis has
recently gained most coverage in the global media. “Governments around the world must come together to combat whatever
this year’s worrying situation has turned out to be,” the director
said. “It is not yet time to panic, but if it goes on much further
without my institution gaining some credit for sounding off on the
issue, we will be justified in labelling it a crisis.”
FT.com | Gideon Rachman’s Blog | The G8: How to write about pointless international organisations
Alan Beattie’s ruthless evisceration of G8 reportage is hilarious, but I note that almost any topic that reporters cover regularly could be boilerplated down to something along these lines. Financial reporting? Climate change? Microsoft Vista delays?
Reminds me of Season 5 of The Wire when the city desk editor is asking everyone why it’s always “mothers of four” that are catching hell.
Actually, come to think of it, I’d love to see a compendium of generalized stories with an API that would custom-generate news stories about various things after you set a few simple parameters. Dark Mad Libs.
Call it the Custom Reporting Sheet (CRS), an app that combines the best of CSS and RSS.
Via » Environmental Economics
