This gist of the report was that a ngaokeoke or New Zealand velvet worm, which apparently was named the country’s top invertebrate this year (!) was eating into plants near the piles for the planned new Dunedin Hospital Inpatient building.
The ODT went on to say that the Department of Conservation was considering turning the hospital site into a sanctuary for the velvet worm and that there had been discussions about moving the entire site down the road. Health officials were planning a special behind-closed-doors meeting before noon on April 1.
The story came complete with a splendid colour photo of the velvet worm crawling among some pink flowers, presumably not near the hospital building site.
Now I’ll admit to reading this and thinking “for god’s sake we had the stupid decision about the Southland windfarm last week, an energy project turned down because of the damage the turbines might do to some blind bats, and now the hospital project is being threatened by a bloody worm.”
It was only when there was a quote from a “worm researcher” called Doug Wormald that the penny dropped and I remembered what day it was.
So the joke worked as it was supposed to do. This reader was sucked in for a short time before realizing, somewhat sheepishly, that he’d been had, even possibly riled, for about thirty seconds.
Of course the notoriously left leaning ODT couldn’t leave their April Fool’s joke without a not-so-sly dig at the government.
Using a made-up quote from the made-up person Doug Wormald, the paper was able to say the worm posed no threat to the completion of the hospital as “nothing much was happening anyway. If anything the worm is more productive than this government.”
It was all very clever, a point well made and would have been a very good story for Private Eye.
But in these days of plummeting trust in media, is testing the gullibility of consumers a smart idea?
The joke story about the worm was surrounded on the ODT front page by stories concerning an elderly woman being scammed in the course of a seven hour phone call, a senior club rugby player having to wait an hour and twenty minutes for an ambulance after breaking both his tibia and fibula in a game on Saturday afternoon and Otago University standing firm on its affirmative action programmes in the face of a member’s Bill proposing to ban them.
If the worm story was a hoax, it’s not stretching the imagination that much to wonder how anybody, elderly woman or not, could be kept on the phone for seven hours before having $24,000 taken from their bank account, or how an ambulance could be held up for over an hour on a Saturday afternoon in a place like Dunedin. Were those stories really true?
As it was the paper reported the player, Ronan Dynes, had an operation at 11pm on Sunday night. Surely if he broke his leg on Saturday afternoon the operation was Saturday night?
Very early in my radio career the story of Phil Shone and the wasp hoax of April 1, 1949 was instilled into us trainees. Shone was the breakfast DJ on 1ZB and this particular morning he told his listeners of about a huge swarm of wasps heading towards Auckland. He suggested that they take steps to protect themselves like wearing socks over their trousers and to put honey traps at the door to stop the wasps attacking people. Shone finally admitted just before he finished on-air at 9 am that it had all been a giant April Fool’s hoax.
The legendary Professor James Shelley, Director of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, was not amused. From then on he sent out an annual memo in late March to all the NZBS stations to remind them of their obligation to “report the truth, and nothing but the truth.”
Life in New Zealand has relaxed considerably in the last 76 years and we’re not as po faced as old Professor Shelley anymore. But his edict about reporting truth should always still be the number one rule of journalism.
So is it ok for a trusted newspaper to play with its credibility by publishing a harmless, albeit politically pointed, April Fool’s joke on the front page?
Last week the Edelsen Trust Barometer reported that trust in the New Zealand media was at a mere 35 percent of the population, a number which essentially matches what AUT found last year.
The Auckland institution will likely report its 2025 Trust in News in New Zealand in a few weeks. Their number was 33 percent last year. It would be a surprise if it rises this year.
A joke is a joke and the morning of April 1 is always a fertile time for a creative brain. But media outlets which face an ongoing battle for their credibility should always be very, very careful about the content they provide for their consumers.
Some of them might have a sense of humour like James Shelley.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack - where this article was sourced.
The story came complete with a splendid colour photo of the velvet worm crawling among some pink flowers, presumably not near the hospital building site.
Now I’ll admit to reading this and thinking “for god’s sake we had the stupid decision about the Southland windfarm last week, an energy project turned down because of the damage the turbines might do to some blind bats, and now the hospital project is being threatened by a bloody worm.”
It was only when there was a quote from a “worm researcher” called Doug Wormald that the penny dropped and I remembered what day it was.
So the joke worked as it was supposed to do. This reader was sucked in for a short time before realizing, somewhat sheepishly, that he’d been had, even possibly riled, for about thirty seconds.
Of course the notoriously left leaning ODT couldn’t leave their April Fool’s joke without a not-so-sly dig at the government.
Using a made-up quote from the made-up person Doug Wormald, the paper was able to say the worm posed no threat to the completion of the hospital as “nothing much was happening anyway. If anything the worm is more productive than this government.”
It was all very clever, a point well made and would have been a very good story for Private Eye.
But in these days of plummeting trust in media, is testing the gullibility of consumers a smart idea?
The joke story about the worm was surrounded on the ODT front page by stories concerning an elderly woman being scammed in the course of a seven hour phone call, a senior club rugby player having to wait an hour and twenty minutes for an ambulance after breaking both his tibia and fibula in a game on Saturday afternoon and Otago University standing firm on its affirmative action programmes in the face of a member’s Bill proposing to ban them.
If the worm story was a hoax, it’s not stretching the imagination that much to wonder how anybody, elderly woman or not, could be kept on the phone for seven hours before having $24,000 taken from their bank account, or how an ambulance could be held up for over an hour on a Saturday afternoon in a place like Dunedin. Were those stories really true?
As it was the paper reported the player, Ronan Dynes, had an operation at 11pm on Sunday night. Surely if he broke his leg on Saturday afternoon the operation was Saturday night?
Very early in my radio career the story of Phil Shone and the wasp hoax of April 1, 1949 was instilled into us trainees. Shone was the breakfast DJ on 1ZB and this particular morning he told his listeners of about a huge swarm of wasps heading towards Auckland. He suggested that they take steps to protect themselves like wearing socks over their trousers and to put honey traps at the door to stop the wasps attacking people. Shone finally admitted just before he finished on-air at 9 am that it had all been a giant April Fool’s hoax.
The legendary Professor James Shelley, Director of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, was not amused. From then on he sent out an annual memo in late March to all the NZBS stations to remind them of their obligation to “report the truth, and nothing but the truth.”
Life in New Zealand has relaxed considerably in the last 76 years and we’re not as po faced as old Professor Shelley anymore. But his edict about reporting truth should always still be the number one rule of journalism.
So is it ok for a trusted newspaper to play with its credibility by publishing a harmless, albeit politically pointed, April Fool’s joke on the front page?
Last week the Edelsen Trust Barometer reported that trust in the New Zealand media was at a mere 35 percent of the population, a number which essentially matches what AUT found last year.
The Auckland institution will likely report its 2025 Trust in News in New Zealand in a few weeks. Their number was 33 percent last year. It would be a surprise if it rises this year.
A joke is a joke and the morning of April 1 is always a fertile time for a creative brain. But media outlets which face an ongoing battle for their credibility should always be very, very careful about the content they provide for their consumers.
Some of them might have a sense of humour like James Shelley.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack - where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
Usually with you all the way but a windfarm?
That surprises me.
They are a blot on the landscape and an environmental disaster only benefitting those who build the monstrosities.
Thought you understood the carbon con.
Problem is the "joke" was likely the most accurate thing published in the ODT on April 1st.
Usually agree with you but as with anonymous 12.09pm....a wind farm! Good grief have you seen a wind farm as opposed to just one wind turbine? No thanks, an environmental disaster in the making. I would prefer the KFC or other fast food outlet.
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