Killing Mind

Ok, I get it. There's a target market for a news feed that is a stones throw from Today Tonight's trashy tabloid material. Ten News are welcome to sprinkle their television news show with updates on who has had a baby lately, or how many firefighters it took to get Snoogles down from the tree this time. There's a significant audience who enjoy their news service delivered that way.

There's a chance however, that there would be some in this audience that would be easily misled. If you're watching trash, then there's some expectation that truths may be bent in the pursuit of sensationalism. In the nightly news bulletin however, I think there is some expectation of integrity.

Which is why, after catching a story on Ten's late news one night, I'm very concerned about the blithe approach to informing the world that is being demonstrated. I faxed the following complaint through:

Towards the end of the news segment was a story about two men who have created a device, attached to their car, which when filled with water, would use the separated hydrogen and oxygen gases to improve fuel efficiency by 20%. Mention was made about their offer to install the device for some fee.

The device and associated installation business is quite clearly, to anyone familiar with physics, chemistry, car mechanics, current scams, or enough common sense, a con. The two men features in the article are without any doubt in my mind, contributors to a global scam to convince people to pay them for a product which simply cannot work (specifically, extraction of hydrogen and oxygen from water requires more energy than it makes available).

I fear, by broadcasting the story, Channel Ten is validating their scam and exposing many people to deception. Further, by promoting provably false statements, Channel Ten are promoting ignorance in their audience.

Apparently, by my faxing the complaint by the official channels and referring to the relevant Code of Conduct, the station is required to respond.

Sure enough, a few days later a letter arrived in the post:

Thank you for your recent letter regarding TEN Late News with Sports Tonight.

As your complaint relates to programming broadcast on a Network Ten affiliate station run by Southern Cross Broadcasting, I have forwarded your letter to their representative, Mr Barry Daley, who will respond to you directly.

That letter was dated 13th June, 2008. I'm yet to hear from Southern Cross and suspect they'd be keen to ignore it. A retraction now would be embarrassing and untimely, so I can only hope some extra thought is given to the integrity of the news stories that make it to broadcast news. It's bad enough that people are so deluded by the petrol price conspiracies that I get 50 copies of that ridiculous email about boycotting a particular petrol vendor forwarded to me, but if seemingly reputable outlets start backing the "car running on water" nonsense, it wont be long before there's a thousand emails and campaigns doing the rounds about beating the oil companies with a water device.

Some people aren't predisposed to doing their own thinking. That gives those that are a lot of work to do. Further, anytime one in a position of influence abuses their position, the pain for the rest increases.