Monday 31 January 2011

Jim Abernathy - Shark Superhero!

It is not news at all that Jim Abernathy was recently bitten by a shark on one of his shark diving operations in the Bahamas. What is news, and what is incredible, in fact, I can't quite believe it myself, is that The Sun Newspaper has published an article that CELEBRATES SHARKS!! This is the paper that, at the site of anything vaguely fin shaped or toothy, heads straight for the JAWS headline. How many times have we seen "Jaws seen in etc.." headlines and cringed at those poor testosterone deprived journos at The Sun. Apparently it is the lack of being able to use the Jaws headline that leads the lads at the red top paper to create other such corkers as "STICK IT UP YOUR JUNTA" (Falklands war), "WHAM BAM! SAM CAM TO BE MAM" (UK Prime Minister's wife is pregnant" and "OBAMA LAMA DING DONG" (President Obama meets the Dalai Lama).
Watching from afar the events as they unfolded after Jim's accident, I was impressed by the way that the media was handled. The reports coming from the US channels were sobering accounts of how the real news on the agenda was the world decimation of sharks species through demand for sharks fin soup, and that the accidental bite to him was way down the agenda. If anyone knows how the media works, this was not something that happened by accident.
It is a great shame that the USA has a president and not a king or queen, because, in true Sun newspaper over-the-top fashion, I am going to say that Jim Abernathy should receive a nighthood for actually getting The Sun to print something positive about sharks.

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