Of course the obvious rant is the one about how no-one takes any pride in their work anymore, how all our skills have been sent off shore to China and all that's left is a pathetic bunch of shiftless zombies who can only turn a dollar by digging things up or servicing tourists. That may well be true.
Or - Hahaha they're obviously so proud they didn't run a spellcheck over the copy before they sent it to Officeworks etc.
In the "good old days" this sort of mistake would possibly have got a look in on Hey Hey It's Saturday then forgotten about.
Unfortunately the potential today is that small (and large) errors can be captured and disseminated electronically to a much larger audience - even bigger than Daryl Somers mid 80's ratings. On the surface this is probably a good thing, after all who can argue against the freedom to expose the incompetencies of others? There's few things I enjoy more than seeing the veneer of infallibility sanded off a public figure, it keeps them on their toes, right?
The trouble is it also makes people risk averse and principles & standards take a back seat to image management. It's human to resile from taking a chance when any negative consequence will be amplified and analysed to such a level that the original intention is ignored. Not a good thing when we expect leadership from our public figures.
A case in point was Kevin Rudd's recent "revelation" that he recognised he'd made a mistake in delaying/abandoning Australia's ETS plans. Surely this sort of candour should be celebrated & then recognised for what is is - a statement of the obvious. Instead it provides a trigger for media to speculate regarding his leadership aspirations. This sells a few papers and we move on when the volley of denials dies down.
Maybe we'd all be better off if we can accept that everyone makes mistakes and rather than focus on the minutiae, we should look at broad intentions. If we expect perfection 24/7 we will be disappointed, then what? Get another one in only to be let down again? Pretty soon all that's left are the safe, the uncommitted, the ones who are only interested in being in government for it's own sake.
