Once again, the Geelong Advertiser has dramatically skewed it’s news coverage towards a single story about the Geelong Football Club – yesterday’s arrest of Mathew Stokes on charges of purchasing, possessing and trafficking cocaine.
No doubt a major story, and worthy of coverage. But here’s the list of stories deemed “headlines” on their website:
The first four are probably fair enough, covering four different and important angles on the story. Never to let a GFC story go by without overkill, the Advertiser also gives us:
| Career of Premiership Highs and Lows Now at Crossroads |
| Chappy Vows His Support |
| Shocked Number One Fan Left in Tears |
| Courtroom Worlds Away From MCG Glory |
Fluff pieces one and all. Surely all of these could have been combined into a single “Universal Support for Mathew Stokes” story, or at very least not be declared “headlines”?
I’m sure this will sell them a few newspapers in this town, but they would have anyway, even with half the number of separate stories. It’s just too much on one story, and too much fluff! Once this case gets to trial – (presuming the case gets through committal and goes to trial) – the local population will be heavily affected by the pounding off fluff news about how “wonderful” he is.
People in this town will want him to be innocent, simply because he’s a Geelong player! Where is an unbiased jury going to come from? Not Geelong. Not good enough Advertiser!