And the worst news story of the year award goes to.....

[Jakef]

This:
http://ten.com.au/news.htm?vid=2696130681001

Un-freaking-believable. This is barely news at all.

[Stephen Brown]

The only reason they used it...they had vision of it, and they have to fill an hour of news.....

[Jakef]

That's what I thought too. "Quick, we managed to capture a somewhat uncommon but totally normal occurrence on HD video, let's sensationalise the crap out of it".

[Sarah C]

Stephen is right - no footage of the 'drama', no story.

And it was the lead story of the day too. Surely the actual bushfires around the state that were threatening homes were a little more important.

[Greg Hyde]

This is technically called a "Beat-Up".

Crew at airport filming extreme winds, catches a go-round.
Run to the terminal and get vision of Mr & Mrs Public leaving gate and happy to look "worried" over landing. I wonder how many passengers were interviewed before the "right" couple were found.

Slow news night. Good Vision.
Public interest HIGH. Actual danger NIL.

[Grahame Hutchison]

I think that the ATSB should look into this incident at Melbourne Airport, as ARFF should not have given the Virgin Atlantic B787 Dreamliner clearance to land in the Force 5 Gale conditions. Fortunately, Channel 10 have recorded every detail of the incident, and this will assist any investigation.

[A McLaughlin]

The ***** in the hat saying it was the "worst conditions" he'd "ever seen in 40 years" didn't help matters!!!

[Kim F]

Why I rarely watch the "news" on the commercial networks! I happenned to be watching it as I had an operational interest in the bushfires which I thought would be lead item!

[Greg Hyde]

Commercial news is designed to hold viewers until the next program (prime time - highest ad/min charge time). The more sensational the better.

If you have a chance to watch Ch7 & Ch9 at the same time you will notice the same stories are in about the same order.

More sensational at the start, more news worthy in the middle ...

Yesterday was a quite news day so a "hook" was needed at the start of the news, hence the beat-up story.

If bushfires endangered life or limb then the beat-up probably wouldn't of been aired.

[Stephen Brown]

a well known statement amongst news rooms..."If it bleeds it leads"

[Greg Hyde]

I've sent the details to ABC Media Watch.

Will be interested to see if they run the story.

[Montague S]

do people still watch commercial news channels?

[Michael Cleary]

Not me, I usually watch the news on SBS or ABC these days.

As suggested, the Commercial channels are interested in pulling in viewers for the programs that follow (and plug those programs during breaks the news too, and in some cases report something in the later program as news), so they manipulate the stories to suit. Fires that have lots of flames/smoke and Crash/Disaster stuff get a good airing.

[Maikha Ly]

I raise you another pathetic attempt at media tonight on Ch7 News Adelaide.

It was even just file footage, slapped with one interview!

http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/19373430/blustery-winds-hit-adelaide/

[Sarah C]

This always reminds me of this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30QIxl3pnpc