22 December 2009. That was the day I stopped using The Times as my primary newspaper1.
You might think it’s the proposed plan to charge for access to the online version of the paper. Perhaps it’s the infuriating way that the RSS feeds force you to go through an ad page to go to the full article from the excerpt. Or the way the RSS feeds when read on a Crackberry send you through to the home page of the mobile site, instead of the actual article you requested, which is now nowhere to be found amongst the 9 articles they make available through the mobile site.
Actually, it was this headline.
“Passengers’ fury at airports as snow steals Christmas”
Really. Really? Snow ’stole’ Christmas? Snow came down from the sky, slapped a small child around the face and ran away with all the presents?
OH NO WAIT. Did it in fact come floating down from the sky in the manner of any other precipitation, and combine with the freezing temperatures and increased traffic to cause hazardous conditions for flying and driving? Y’know, like normally happens in winter?
“Chaos on the roads” is fine. “Many passengers… were inconsolable at being stranded at Christmas” is also fine, if a little emotive for my stony-hearted tastes. Both are, at least, statements of fact. But “snow steals Christmas”? What’s next? ‘Furious passengers take snow hostage and refuse to let it go until it gives back Christmas’? ‘Passengers go on vigilante raid against vicious snowy attacker by amassing huge pile of burning tyres and petrol attempting to hasten rate of global warming’? ‘Callous snow evades capture by melting with the assistance of co-conspirator Unseasonably Warm Few Days Around Christmas?’
Seriously, dudes. WTF. What am I supposed to read now? I can’t read the Telegraph (not posh enough2), I can’t read the Guardian (not an English teacher, can spell), I don’t really like the Independent online site. What’s left?
1 Yes, I know, Murdoch should be enough of a reason. I read it because I (normally) like the writing style. If you comment to tell me that Murdoch should be enough of a reason to stop reading The Times, I will know that you didn’t read this footnote, and will be entitled to tell you that you are wrong. On the internet.
2 I only say this because I was looking at a recipe from the Telegraph and noticed that it had separate instructions for cooking it in an Aga.
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