The reality of the newsroom

All Australian journalists, even the embittered hard-news variety, love the chance to slip a sly, cynical remark about the latest reality television trend or fiasco into their copy at least once a week. (Yesterday it was a story about a mass wank-a-thon, after a UK television station announced it will herd thousands of Britons into a hall and tell them to get their pants and then their rocks off, all in front of the cameras and all for charity.) As I mentioned, it's not just gossip columnists, television writers and entertainment reporters who are sucked into giving the genre oxygen, but even the hardest drinking, most seasoned and the most respected are susceptible. You would have had to be blind not to see the thousands of references (ok maybe one or two) to turkey-slapping pop up when the Howard/Costello leadership fraccas was in full swing.

But now media commentators and journalists alike have a plausible excuse for boring us to death with their thoughts on reality television - they're gonna be part of it. Well not the Australian jounos just yet, but their profession will definitely be on show for all to judge and joke about. A reality show that points the camera on reporters and editors at the New York Daily News, catching the news room in full swing as it tries to trample Rupert's New York Post. Make no doubt about it, "Tabloid Wars" is one new reality show I'll be eagerly waiting to see on Australian television - because it can't really be any worse than the British wank-a-thon, can it?. There are so many cheap shots you could make when comparing reality television shows about wanking and the journalism industry, but I'll refrain for now. And even though I'll be looking forward to "Tabloid Wars", I have to say that having been brought up with the cutting satire of "Frontline", there's a real good chance that when "Tabloid Wars", this latest shot at capturing the true essence of the newsroom appears (if it does) on Aussie tv, I'll probably be slightly disappointed. "Frontline" (as well as the UK's "drop the dead donkey") was as close to the bone as you're going to get to a look inside the insidious culture of the newsroom.

You can read the New York Time's review here, if you wish.