"A Severed Head Just Rolled By Me etc etc"

THE POST below, which touches on the mushrooms of the Melbourne press and their apparent acceptance of the official view that citizens do not need to be informed of threats to their safety, brought back memories of the days when news organisations actually covered the city in which they make their money (one of them, anyway). Sunday morning after Mass, the roast in the oven and 3UZ's Newsbeat bringing atmospheric reports to the kitchen from the scene of the night before's car accidents, fires, and, in the early Sixties, the latest Italians associated with vegetable wholesaling to be knifed or shot.

Well memory deceives. It seems at least some of those gripping accounts were about as credible as a David Hirst column on America's gun culture. Still, even if radio reporters were making it up, at least they covered something. Not like today.