How Boring.

DMaxer · Guru

How Boring.

bgt · Guru

Well said DMaxer. But it's all about control. The politicians are currently drunk with power. So to the health officials. And the media are always looking for a headline or 'gotcha' moment.

But we know folks who have hardly stepped outside their house since March last year. They are so scared of catching something. One in particular lives on a farm 30k from the nearest town. Covid is serious for a lot of folks. So is the inability of some folks to use any form of logic.

Craig1 · Guru

and now Mr Hazard is a "possible close contact", so we had to be triple bored with a hand held phone waving around a bit while he was being grilled yet again.

DMaxer · Guru

I accept that it is a serious threat to us all and if it is not contained then we could be in a world of pain. What I find annoying is the communication style of the Government in detailing what has occurred and what has to be done.

The present system of detailing Government announcements is just appalling.

Whenarewethere · Guru

Just imagine a large corporate campaign of the presentation standards of governments. They would be out of business in 30second.

DMaxer · Guru

If the press conferences aren't bad enough I don't understand why the television station feels it is necessary to have one of their intrepid reporters, sans mask, at the airport to tell us the border has been closed. Does it really need some clown to stand at an airport to convey the message that certain people will not be able to travel. We then need to have a story on the vaccine so immediately we get some footage of someone in a lab looking at a bottle followed up by some no account receiving an injection. Surely we know what they mean without the footage being shown ad nauseum. To add to all the theatre, we do not have restrictions and border closures, we have "levers being pulled to snapshut a lockdown" and "borders slamming shut".

I am just so grateful I have alcohol in my life.

bilbo · Senior Member

How Boring.	Permalink Reply Quote

As we get ready for an escalation in the Covid numbers in NSW I can't help but tune out every time we are inflicted with yet another press conference. In my humble opinion, it would be so much more enlightening and beneficial to the general public if an announcement could just be made succinctly and briefly without the need to have an army of hangers on surrounding the speaker and then going into a tag team routine at the microphone. It starts off with a very concerned looking premier who then hands over to the health minister who then hands over to a medical person who then hands back. Meanwhile, a solemn looking military or police figure hovers in the background whilst some theatrical hand waving goes on to assist those who might be hearing impaired. If this is not enough we are then subjected to a barrage of mindless cross examination from a group of junior Jimmy Olsens who would otherwise have been covering a finger painting competition at the local school fete. Why can't we just have an announcement as to the status quo and the steps to be taken without the need to bore us all to death. The worst offenders are the health ministers who have no medical qualifications whatsoever, acting as if are just back from addressing the world's eminent physicians at a Harvard symposium. So far our local genius in NSW has allowed a cruise boat to disembark and a driver to transport airline crew without being vaccinated or even wearing a mask. He is the last person anyone should be listening to. No wonder people tune out and listen to unqualified person's theories on Covid when the alternative is listening to the politicians and their experts who only seem to be capable of curing insomnia. Thank god we are not about to be invaded by a hostile army, we would be overrun before they had finished with their own introduction. That is a seriously funny post......and true. cheers Bilbo

Whenarewethere · Guru

Like reporters interviewing reporters standing in heavy rain reporting it is heavy rain.

It is lazy television, boring, pointless & irresponsible for the health of the person/s in the appalling weather.

Dougwe · Chief one feather

G'day Dmaxer,

Mate, If I get the feeling I am heading to being bored I just read about weights of vans and tugs then WDH and finish of by best generators and best times to use them. Those subjects used to be boring but compared to what you have talked about they are a much better option now.

Keep safe my friend

Dicko1 · Senior Member

Can you image how many "head nodders' would be out of a job if these press conferences just kept it to a minimum and only facts?

bgt · Guru

There is a plus side to all this nonsense. Australians have now become aware of the limits and restrictions of our constitution. When both state and federal governments are pointing the figure at each other how the hell can we know the answer? And why can''t we get one set of rules. Any rules as long as we all know what they are and how they will be activated. Well I do know the answer. Politics. They are ALL, left and right, playing to the popularity tune.

And not to be unkind. Why do they always have someone using sign language? Are there that many Australians who use sign language? What happened to sub text? Now I'll be bashed for being someone who discriminates against the deaf.

dorian · Guru

I have no problem with these press conferences. I see them as a positive attempt to engage with the public, especially when the situation is escalating rapidly, as is the case now in Bondi. I don't understand the need for sign language, but I'm not yet deaf.

On the subject of press conferences generally, the ones which I find really pointless are those post match affairs where tennis players and the like explain how they hit or kicked the ball just a few hours beforehand. Really riveting stuff. In fact I reckon POTUS, the de facto leader of the free world, probably talks to the press less often than Djokovic or Ronaldo.

-- Edited by dorian on Thursday 24th of June 2021 11:39:31 AM

dogbox · Guru

Craig1 wrote:

and now Mr Hazard is a "possible close contact", so we had to be triple bored with a hand held phone waving around a bit while he was being grilled yet again.

now there is a minister that instills confidence that he is on top of his job and will lead us to salvation (NOT)

peter67 · Guru

I vote for DMaxer in the newly created minister communications portfolio.

DMaxer · Guru

Thanks for that vote of confidence Peter but I reckon the press conferences would be fabulous if they were conducted by either Roy and H.G. Nelson or Billy Birmingham doing a Richie Benaud impersonation.

Imagine Billy, there have been "toe" cases out of "toe" thousand tests. He could then break into a Daryl Eastlake or Ray Warren voice and tell us the hotspots.

Mike Harding · Guru

I rarely watch TV but the sign language person drives me around the bend! I find I am concentrating upon them and don't take in what is being said by the speaker.

How many deaf people who sign are there?

I suggest this is merely an attempt to be Politically Correct.

Why cannot the main details of the conference be broadcast as text (it's digitally bloody TV!) so that deaf people can turn on subtitles?

Whenarewethere · Guru

Here are some vegetables to launch in the direction of said speakers!

Readily available from Coles:

& Woolworths:

bgt · Guru

Hey that's rude. :).

peter67 · Guru

I like your train of thought especially with regards to Roy and HG.

ps perhaps someone could could coax Sir Les Patterson out of retirement.

Craig1 · Guru

Thats a better looking tomato than was available in Coles Lavy this morning. They were laying down and whimpering, so still there.

Whenarewethere · Guru

IGA had button mushrooms & Aldi's cashew were salty,!

DMaxer · Guru

Why is it necessary that every time there is a lockdown or people being vaccinated or tested that we need to interview people parked in their cars in a queue to find out their opinion. Do we really need to know that their friend's brother had to cancel his trip or their youngest child can't play netball this weekend. What is worse is when some Einstein then takes the opportunity to give his/her view on what should or should not be happening.

If that isn't enough, what about that bloke on the ABC with his graph. He gets so excited waving his hands about it looks like he is about to take off. When you think it can't get any lower we then have that cross to a reporter standing outside a clinic or a hospital, nodding furiously and giving their opinion on what will happen. None of that is news, it is just commentating.

chappy · Senior Member

D-Maxer you have my total support! Cairns is now on a knife edge! Very laid back attitude. My daughters who are classed as essential workers (but neither are frontline) have both had Pfitzer. Other workers still waiting. 1 daughter on the local Covid response team is told that Cairns is next hotspot! Hubby and I still waiting for are 2nd AZ. State of Origin went ahead! Big Red Bash still happening! Mareeba Rodeo next week! Plenty of reports of huge amounts of travellers up and down between Cairns and Townsville the last couple of days. Stay safe everyone Please mask up!

dorian · Guru

I confess that I find sign language interpreters to be a big distraction, so I wanted to find out what the deaf community, or their advocates, thought of it.

https://deafaustralia.org.au/advocacy/auslan-on-tv/

"Since the Bushfires last year, Deaf Australia sent letters to Premiers and Prime Minister reminding them their obligations to provide interpreters on TV, obligation outlined in the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability.

This has been supported by a research conducted by Curtin University where they demonstrated that live captioning is riddled with errors. This presents Deaf Australia with tangible evidence for the need of Auslan interpreter in these announcements."

https://deafaustralia.org.au/media-release-census-2021/

"Statistics show Auslan was first recorded in the 2001 Census. Since then, every Census has noted a significant increase of Auslan users. In 2001 Auslan users numbered 5,306. This increased to 11,682 in 2016."

Mike Harding · Guru

Frankly I find the broadcast almost unwatchable with the sign language on screen and I'm sure I miss taking in half of what is said because I'm concentrating on the signer. I'd rather see the salient points as text on a rolling display.

Possum3 · Guru

Mike Harding wrote:
Frankly I find the broadcast almost unwatchable with the sign language on screen and I'm sure I miss taking in half of what is said because I'm concentrating on the signer. I'd rather see the salient points as text on a rolling display.

As I have two profoundly deaf Grandkids I have a totally opposite view to Mike - Auslan interpreters are able to be understood by many people that are too young to read subtitles, also give news to many illiterate seniors that cannot hear, and those that cannot understand English.

My family has been able to communicate with our "babies" at three months of age - well before normal age of reading capabilities.

I would suggest that the use of Auslan interpreters be expanded not diminished.

Mike Harding · Guru

Possum3 wrote:
As I have two profoundly deaf Grandkids I have a totally opposite view to Mike

Fair enough Possum. Were I in your position I'd probably feel exactly the same.

bgt · Guru

My only issue with it is why just on these covid media events?

Magnarc · Guru

I have read the posts on this subject and agree wholeheartedly with Dmaxer. Here are a few more points I think should be aired, the attempted dumbing down of the viewing public by the following rubbish,

Farmers who want wives. This "show" is populated by ladies with with very fullsome upper body attributes, gorgeous figures and the likes. For the life of me I cannot see any of them mucking out a pigsty or shovelling cow manure, surely they would seem to be much more at home in a nail salon?? Reality tv? no it is fully scripted. How many of these "marriages" last? We are never told, if we are I have never heard it.

Large Brother. Another load of cobblers. Winner is known from the get go. Sexually titillating junk tv.

The Block. Again the format is largely the same. Attractive females wearing a carpenters bag with screwdrivers, hammers and the like. How many have used the tools?? This show is an advertisers dream of home if you manufacture circular saws, hammers, wheelbarrows and so on ad infinitum. Not to mention the very frequent references to a certain hardware store who is a "sponsor".

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought that the commercial breaks were limited to twelve minutes in the hour, these programmes would seem to be a great way to beat the legislation. Regulations should be policed but they never are. Then there is the devious way that commercial channels promote shows by inserting the promo at the bottom of the screen whilst we are watching something else. Total disregard for the viewer.

Last but not least, there's my pet hate, yep youv'e guessed it! Programmes that can sometimes run overtime by 15/20 minutes. another example of total disregard for the viewer fortunately it did not take me long to add 30 minutes to the recording time and I have a recorder that can whizz through the ads in three seconds. Since we are selective what we watch, I don't have to do it very often.

Now I know that advertising is their bread and butter and that is not in question, what is in question is the that they think that they can do whatever they like and where is the regulator?? missing as usual.

End of rant.

DMaxer · Guru

Not only have we had to cope with lockdowns being "snapshut", fines being "slapped on" and borders "slamming shut" we now have to "brace" for lockdown extensions and "grapple" with rising numbers.

All this is delivered by some furiously nodding head whilst holding out the outstretched hand, palm down and fingers spread apart whilst it is pumped up and down all done in front of a medical centre or testing site.

If that is not enough, tune into the ABC and get a load of that clown with his graph. He looks like he is conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with all that hand waving and theatre.

-- Edited by DMaxer on Friday 2nd of July 2021 10:46:03 AM