Thoughts.com Blogs - Things to Ponder

Why do newsreaders these days bother with having sheets of paper on their desks?

Some newsreaders grip these pieces of paper like their lives depended on it. So yeah, why do they have the paper when they just read the autocue?

We have a truely terrible sports reporter in Brisbane. His name is Michael Voss. I wish I could find a clip of him reading the news on Youtube to show you just how bad he is. He's not even a journalist. He's a retired football player (okay so he might know a bit about sport, but there's no way he should be presenting it to the masses!). He never knows what to do with his hands and spends every second shuffling his papers, putting his left hand over his right, his right hand over his left, moving his hands apart, bringing them back together....you get the picture.

Even if they only filmed him from the shoulders up I wouldn't be able to sit through his reports cos I can't stand listening to him speak either. He talks with a really flat and "ocker" Aussie accent (think Kath and Kim...). And he has bad jokes which is just the thick icing on this already overly-large sickly sweet chocolate cake of terrible news reporting.

Why channel 10 has persisted in letting him read the news I cannot understand. I've even tried writing an email to channel 10 to complain about how bad he is (which is really unusual for me to do, but Channel 10 news is my favourite, no thanks to this putts...) but I couldn't find where the hell on their website you write to them to give your opinion! And I absolutely refuse to do a snail mail letter in this day of technology super highways. Mind you, the traffic here is getting so bad that the information superhighway is probably clogged with traffic too - emails trying to get to their inboxes after a hard day's work, rants like this trying to get to their preferred blog, downloads trying to reach MP3 players....

So anyways it appears that Michael Voss has highjacked my post about "things to ponder" so I'll have to save my other ponderings till next time!

Oh, actually, another newreader-related pondering:

What are the newsreaders talking about to each other when their show has ended and the credits are rolling? You know. - when the song's playing and you can't hear them talking, but they're very jovial with each other and still shuffling their papers around?

Is it compulsory for them to be seen speaking so they don't look like losers sitting there in silence by themselves? Do they have a pre-determined topic to speak about while the theme tune plays? Or is it something like:

"Gee, you really put a lot of emotion into that story about the rescued kitten there"

"Oh thanks, I was actually trying hard no to piss myself laughing the whole time cos I'd just farted!"

"Really? Well you were totally convincing and that roll of the eyes at the end of that story about the guy who bashed the old lady? That really hit home the disgust everyone should be feeling about that story"!