[Kevin]

Nice new design at News.com.au

[Kevin]

+ Noises in the dark

[Firetorch]

Seems perthnow has had an upgrade.

[Slj]

Firetorch, on Aug 21 2007, 12:22 PM, said:

Seems perthnow has had an upgrade.

Just a big ad for ING, the same with The West site.

[Kevin]

News.com.au has slowly been changing it's front page over to a new design. I quite liked the previous one, so I hope they don't mess it up. All sections are currently getting a revamp too, and they recently asked people to complete a survey on what is most important for them to see on News websites.

They've always done well with the design, so I hope they don't make a change for the worst this time

[Tim]

News.com.au? Good design?
I've always thought it was rather ugly, the same applies to all their newspapers (although the Australian isn't too bad).

[Kevin]

News.com.au have made some changes to their home page this week. Can't say I'm too impressed so far, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

One thing is for sure though - if I see that idiot Corey as their main story again from now on then I'm going to go crazy. I can't believe they, and the rest of the media, have given that idiot so much exposure

[Firetorch]

They had a large photo of his pimply face up all day today.

[Kevin]

Firetorch, on Jan 17 2008, 10:29 PM, said:

They had a large photo of his pimply face up all day today.

I know, that's what I was talking about. I'm sick of seeing him there, especially as the top story.

If that fuckwit got shot tomorrow then I wouldn't care, so why the hell would I care now? The media have turned him in a hero and it's wrong on so many levels.

[Kevin]

NEWS.com.au said:

NEWS.com.au has received four industry award nominations in the latest recognition of the site's continuing online news leadership.

NEWS.com.au journalists and producers earned two nominations in the Best News, Media, or Reference category for their work on two major projects, while the site's mobile version was nominated in the Best Cross-Platform Content or Content Integration category in the 2008 AIMIA awards.

+ Full Story

Well deserved in my opinion. Although their story selection and placement can be questionable at times, overall they do a great job.

[Firetorch]

Like hell they do. It is one of the most crappy, inaccurate, and unprofessional news sites on the internet. (More specifically talking about PerthNow for the moment).

Look at the shit that was printed in the paper today and is available on line.

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21...03-2761,00.html

Perth facing drought

IF the forecasters are right, by next Sunday Perth will be in a drought of biblical proportions - 40 days and 40 nights without rain.
The city is unlikely to see rain until next month, and is on the way to a record for the longest dry summer spell.

Rain has not fallen for 32 days and the weather bureau says there is no change on the horizon.

A bureau spokesman said: "A break is not expected until sometime in February, possibly not until the end of that month.''

The Weather Factory, a Sydney company that provides information and forecasting, said records showed the longest dry spell for this time of year was 48 days in 2004. No rain was recorded in January 2005.

The average number of rain days for January was 2.4. A "rain day'' is when .2mm of rain is recorded.

The bureau spokesman said there was some drizzle around the metropolitan area on Friday but it did not reach recorded levels.

The latest prediction is a change from the December outlook, when the Bureau of Meteorology forecast above average falls between January and March.

Perth's weather is in stark contrast to Queensland and New South Wales.

Noah would feel more at home there, with severe flooding in both states.

Overall, Australia had its sixth-warmest year on record last year.

The dry weather has been a bonus for plastic grass companies.

Peter Nobbs, WA distributor of Smartgrass, one of Australia's biggest artificial grass companies, said business was booming.

"I bought the business last March, now I have eight teams working flat out,'' he said.

"You only have to look at the water restrictions, drought areas, and the cost of watering to see why people are doing it.''

The grass costs $74.50 a sq/m but Mr Nobbs said it would pay for itself in two years.

By Nick Taylor.

Look at how much fear mongering crap they crammed in to one article? Drought of biblical proportions? No. Just a longer than average dry spell over summer which occurs every few years in Perth. The median rainfall for Perth in January is 2mm. So tell me how 19 days without rainfall is in any way newsworthy? And considering we had our wettest December for a number of years in Perth.

The Bureau of Meteorology did not forecast above average falls between January and March at all. Completely wrong. They said that there was a 65% chance with the current weather set-up that we could record above average rainfall. They were not forecasting rainfall above the average by 65%. Any any knowledgeable person would know that with summer rain only negligible in the Lower West and Central West of the state during summer, than any predictions of above or below average rainfall mean nothing. Even then, by the end of March 2008, we could indeed pass the median rainfall for the period.

Perths weather is always in stark contrast to QLD and NSW during summer.

What Australia recording its sixth warmest year on record has to do with a dry period in Perth during summer, I do not know. More fear mongering shit being dribbled out by Mr Taylor.

And trying to make a link with plastic grass companies? Very weak.

[Kevin]

Firetorch, on Jan 20 2008, 02:02 PM, said:

Like hell they do. It is one of the most crappy, inaccurate, and unprofessional news sites on the internet. (More specifically talking about PerthNow for the moment).

Fair enough about the comments regarding PerthNow articles (and I agree some of their articles contain questionable content), but that is operated by The Sunday Times (more specifically the editor Allen Newton).

I find that articles written by the News.com.au journalists directly (meaning they're not writing for any of the newspapers) are of an excellent quality that are high quality reports, accurate and fair to both sides of the story (for the most part - there's bound to always be the occasional exception).

The articles written by reporters working for the various newspapers are different, and that's where you'll find a different level and quality of reporting.

PerthNow is a News.com.au branded site, so your point of view on the site overall is valid based on that. If you take PerthNow out of the picture though, how do you view News.com.au then?

[Firetorch]

The national news.com.au is better and I do visit it daily.

[SydneySider]

Kevin, on Jan 18 2008, 12:33 AM, said:

The media have turned him in a hero and it's wrong on so many levels.

The media haven't turned him into a hero at all...if anything they've portrayed him as a moron - which he is.

And the reason why he kept getting run in the media was because he rated...I saw those articles on news.com.au and if you looked at the bottom of the page which shows the most clicked stories he was up there in the top 3.

And the interview he did with ACA where Leila McKinnon interviewed him, that was put on youtube and was in the top 5 most viewed videos worldwide.

[Firetorch]

SydneySider, on Jan 25 2008, 07:09 PM, said:

The media haven't turned him into a hero at all...

They have...by giving him the unnecessary coverage.

[SydneySider]

Firetorch, on Jan 25 2008, 11:54 PM, said:

They have...by giving him the unnecessary coverage.

That makes no sense at all. The media gave unprecedented coverage to the September 11 attacks...does that make the terrorists heros?

The media made Corey look like a moron...they didn't give him hero status at all.

[Firetorch]

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21...96-2761,00.html

Quote

Showers break 46-day drought

By Michael Washbourne

February 02, 2008 06:00pm

IT wasn't a downpour, but yesterday's showers ended a 46-day drought in Perth.

For the Knox family of Applecross, who recently migrated from Scotland, it was the first drop of rain they'd seen since landing here on New Year's Eve.

January's searing temperatures _ making it the hottest January in 16 years _ ensured the Knoxes got maximum use of their swimming pool.

After living in ``cold and rainy'' Scotland for so long, they were still adjusting to the hot climate.
Claire Knox said she was not aware they had arrived during a dry spell. ``We just thought it never rained, apart from in winter,'' she said.

Her children Elliot, 10, Cameron, 9, and Oliver, 2, have been in the pool virtually every day.
Perth's last official ``rain day'' was on December 19.

A ``rain day'' is when at least 0.2mm has fallen.

Perth's longest drought on record is 83 days, recorded between December 1974 and March 1975.

No it certainly wasn't a downpour considering none of the metro sites recorded any rainfall. It's been sunny and hot all day in Perth.

SydneySider, on Jan 26 2008, 07:23 PM, said:

That makes no sense at all. The media gave unprecedented coverage to the September 11 attacks...does that make the terrorists heros?

The media made Corey look like a moron...they didn't give him hero status at all.

Difference being the September 11th incident deserved the coverage. This guy didn't. He's only popular with young teenagers because of the way he handled that ACA interview, no other reason. So yeah, the media is at fault.

[SydneySider]

Firetorch, on Feb 3 2008, 01:18 AM, said:

He's only popular with young teenagers because of the way he handled that ACA interview, no other reason. So yeah, the media is at fault.

Who says he's popular with young teenagesr? You only have to go onto facebook to see how many anti-Corey groups have sprung up...made by teenagers.

[POWERZONE]

hello...
Corey's definitely now "well known" by young teenagers thanks to the media.
Popular? probably not. Dickhead? Definitely yes.
Having said that it wouldn't surprise me to see some other goon trying to "copy" Corey's tactics.

[TimC]

Firetorch, on Feb 2 2008, 11:18 PM, said:

He's only popular with young teenagers because of the way he handled that ACA interview, no other reason. So yeah, the media is at fault.

Well I am a teenager and I and all of my friends think he is a complete dickhead!

[Firetorch]

SydneySider, on Feb 3 2008, 05:31 PM, said:

Who says he's popular with young teenagesr? You only have to go onto facebook to see how many anti-Corey groups have sprung up...made by teenagers.

Since when is Facebook frequented by young teenagers?

[Kevin]

Firetorch, on Feb 4 2008, 12:10 PM, said:

Since when is Facebook frequented by young teenagers?

Is that a trick question?

[Kevin]

POWERZONE, on Feb 3 2008, 06:50 PM, said:

Having said that it wouldn't surprise me to see some other goon trying to "copy" Corey's tactics.

I'm surprised we haven't seen something like that happen already.

[Firetorch]

Kevin, on Feb 4 2008, 11:12 AM, said:

Is that a trick question?

Well most people are 18 or over on that site. Why do you think that's a trick question?

[Kevin]

Firetorch, on Feb 4 2008, 12:25 PM, said:

Well most people are 18 or over on that site. Why do you think that's a trick question?

MySpace might be more popular with teenagers than Facebook is (probably due to MySpace being easier to use), but there are enough young and older teenagers on Facebook as well.