Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

Headlines are all the rage this week, hot on the heels of the Canon Media Awards at which SunLive came second in the digital breaking news category.

Well we presume we were second, since there were three in the final and the Herald won. Even though a good journalist should never assume anything, we are assuming our rightful place as the second best breaking news site in the country. And we certainly would like to be better than Stuff.

Well done to the Sun Media team on making the finals, a old locally-owned and operated news organisation, footing it amongst the massive Australian-owned corporates.

So the first heading that caught our attention, ironically enough, was in the Herald (the first best breaking news site) proclaiming: 'Woman accused of leaving kids alone”
Our first reaction was to wonder how Rolf Harris would take it. Since he's accused of NOT leaving kids alone. He must be thinking: 'Jeez, you just can't win these days”.
Next came a strange story, from our newly-adopted MP and Minister of Suave Hair, Todd McClay.

(Due to electoral boundary changes, we recently inherited Todd. It's a bit like moving into a new house and finding the owners have left behind a nice, big fluffy cat. Except Todd has a better coat).

He's announced the IRD is making sign language video for the hearing impaired to make it easier for them to pay their tax.

Now I was deeply perplexed about this idea, when an email popped up from our regular contributor, Mr Ty Taarse. His offering saved me the effort of developing an answer:
'Now I'm all for helping deaf and blind people and indeed everyone, but wouldn't you think that you'd produce audio recordings for the blind and books for the deaf? Just wondering what Minister Todd McClay and his bureaucrats will come up with next. Maybe I'll become a psychic and insist that IRD communicate with me telepathically.”
Another headline that surprised us was an announcement in the local Whitianga-Coromandel paper last week that it was closing down.

This came as a bit of a surprise for many in the upper peninsula, including the staff and delivery people; some who read about the end of their jobs on the front page.

Never mind, in a matter of days, Sun Media had set up and launched a new paper – the Peninsula Sun.

We're very proud of the new little sister for the Sun, and our last-minute effort to keep a proper local paper in that region. We thank the many people who rallied to help us publish and deliver the first Peninsula Sun, in very short notice.

It adds another title to the Sun Media stable and also dovetails with our daily coverage on SunLive; the region's leading new service, which now in addition to the Western Bay main site is gaining readers every week on SunLive Eastern Bay and the Coromandel peninsula area site, SunLive Thames/Coromandel.

You'll find tabs direct to those regional sites at the top line of your main SunLive news homepage.

It's a strange world

Here's a selection of weird and wonderful headlines that have made, well, headlines, around the world.



brian@thesun.co.nz