Dr Mumbo

The Australian’s War on Twitter (part 2)

Dr Mumbo is delighted to see that The Australian today continues its one newspaper war on Twitter.  

Regular readers will recall that the newspaper dedicated its leader column to the topic last month, arguing that newspapers were the true “platform of the information age” and that Twitter was “spluttering out”.

After Mumbrella wrote about it, the piece generated a string of amused comments on this site (presumably because the Oz doesn’t itself have anything so newfangled as a means of allowing readers to comment on its online stories) from those who disagreed.

Somewhat comically, Stephen Matchett has today dedicated a column in the Oz to his argument that Twitter will never replace newspapers. Putting on his sarcastic hat, he says:

“Oh no, Twitter is the future font of all news, information unfiltered by horrible hacks who work on newspapers and have this old-fashioned interest in reporting what powerful people do not want us to know and who have no idea about things that matter, like how to get rid of embarrassing Facebook photos of twitterers before they gave up partying.

“I know this is right because a couple of weeks ago a dementor who writes editorials at The Australian suggested Twitter was tedious. To say the twitterati were not best pleased is the sort of understatement leader writers rarely revel in.”

Of course, it’s relatively easy for him to win the argument that Twitter won’t replace papers because no informed commentators that Dr Mumbo is aware of (with the possible exception of Laurel Papworth) have suggested that’s the case.

Dr Mumbo wonders if it’s a coincidence that Matchett recently wrote a column on how the 1970s were much better.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.