So I was browsing the front page of the VG Nett, the online version of Norway’s most popular newspaper, to read up on current events. More specifically to see how much damage the fireworks had caused this year, but they didn’t seem to have much information about it.
But then I stumbled over this story, with the headline: Fikk fugl gjennom ruta i 290 km/t, or in English: Got bird through windshield at 290 km/h. So I click it, read through it, and it turns out it’s about this YouTube video clip. This video clip was posted March 1, 2007. This story was written today January 1, 2009. How, exactly, is this news? It was barely news to begin with, and now, almost two years after it was posted, the biggest Norwegian newspaper decides to write about it in their online edition.
Granted, the case can be made that an online edition of a newspaper can allow itself to be more frivilous and to mention and link to popular sensationalist online video clips. But this is pretty much presented as a plain piece of current news, which it definitely isn’t. So maybe in a year or so they’ll write about the sensational news of two otters holding hands, or of puppy conquering robot, or maybe report that all your base are indeed belong to us.
If you can get a job at VG Nett finding and reporting on YouTube videoes – regardless of their age – sign me up! Maybe then I’d get something back for the countless hours I’ve wasted browsing YouTube… Ah, YouTube. Such fond memories.
Amen
Hahaha, my thought exactly. I can just imaging the editor going “Right fellas! No real news today, so everyone that isn’t doing anything, go on youtube and see if you can find some! Anything will do, really… Even if it happened a decade ago!”
It’s also quite impressive that they manage to squeeze out another 20km/h in the Porsche story.
It specifically says that it hit the bird at 260km/h, but VG then writes:
“The Porsche apparently hit the bird at 280km/h which damaged the car quite a lot.”
But the first of January is always a normal day for “agurknytt” as we call it in norway, usually about some dog that knows how to sing because they have nothing else to write about so I’m not really surprised something like this came up today.
The headline says the bird goes *through* the windwhield, but the video clearly shows that it does not.
This type of journalists can never get even the simplest of facts right.
PREACH PREACH!!
Happy new year…