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Dumbing down

Probably like most Aussies travelling overseas it is nice to be able to catch up with the news "back home". Travelling with a laptop makes that even easier.

Why is then that when accessing either the SMH or The Age on line the seemingly featured article is on Paris Hilton or some like brainless twit? Does anyone with even half a scintilla of intelligence really care whether Paris Hilton did, or did not, pay for a snack at a Sydney eatery?

We know that Fairfax is more interested in "lifestyle" pieces than hard news - perhaps hardly surprising when one considers the composition of the Board of Fairfax headed by Ron Walker - but is it really necessary to dumb down the newspapers that much?

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