ODT Watch | Issue 16

ODT Watch | Issue 16

Useless degrees and shackles



Heads up, Dave Cull! Has ODT got a deal for you: more shackles on sale! I’m sure there’s still some taxpayer money squirreled away that you could use to augment Dunedin’s growing collection of dirty, old handcuffs.




These three articles, placed together in Tuesday’s newspaper, appear to be the start of a new ODT “cheating spouses” segment. These rather gruesome stories describe how several partners reacted after discovering that their significant other had cuckolded them. Retaliation included head-butting and hair-pulling, genital-yanking and threatening with a cross-bow. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what relationship problems the court reporter had on his mind when covering court hearings this week …



The ODT have probed deep into the student world, discovering students are quite the pyromaniacs. The headline alludes to an apparent fanatic passion that consumes students and can only be released through the burning of couches. ODT’s judgement is palpable in this article, but we think that if ODT staff had to spend a night in a typical student flat, they too would be lighting furniture on fire in a desperate attempt to keep warm.



Come on, ODT: I know you’re working hard to produce a high-quality newspaper but really, make the time for proof reading, especially for headlines.




The placement of these articles (i.e. right next to one another) was rather unfortunate. In the first, Harlene Hayne breaks the news to University of Otago staff that tight times will continue, especially for Humanities and Commerce. Meanwhile, the adjacent article outlines the doubling in staff for the University Science Centre, along with ambitious plans to further develop the Centre. BAs and BComs aren’t real degrees, anyway.
This article first appeared in Issue 16, 2014.
Posted 5:12pm Sunday 20th July 2014 by Kristen Stewart and Allison Hess.