17 August, 2009

Complacent as usual

This is the sort of thing I find so annoying about the Guardian; the reason I include it amongst my chosen sources of everyday news but rarely read the 'opinion' pieces and couldn't imagine paying for the newspaper.

The Guardian had the opportunity to interview the Norwegian band 'A-ha', but rather than send a dedicated music journalist, they gave the story to someone who'd been a 'fan' of the A-ha act/cultural phenomenon (as opposed to the, y'know, music) in the 1980s, who had plainly lost interest in the intervening years and who had no idea that the band had reformed in 1998 and has been active for the past decade; she was expecting a tongue-in-cheek revival of Eighties kitsch but was surprised to encounter serious, philosophical musicians disinterested in pop culture.

The specifics are of limited relevance – I was barely aware of A-ha, too. My annoyance is with the fact that yet again a 'journalist' based an article on, even revelled in, her ignorance of its subject. How can fundamental incompetence be a selling-point?

And don't get me started on spoilt urbanites whinging about the inconvenience of gulls....

[Not that the Guardian's the worst for publishing vacuous commentary – far from it.]