COM 150, 209: Brit blog broadcasts 'bear facts'

Channel 4, an independent television network in Great Britain, has published what it bills as "The truth about Knut the cute polar bear" on its newsroom blog.

(Brits being Brits, the blog also features what has to be the most remarkable necktie I've ever seen in the graphic at top.)

It's what we used to call a "non-story" when I was in the newspaper business, but it's a cleverly written one:

If you were watching Channel 4 News last week, you can't fail to have been charmed by Knut the polar bear cub. The adorable infant is so unbelievably cute that many people who saw that footage still haven't recovered their full composure.

He was seen playing with a life-size cuddly toy of a brown bear, listening to Elvis Presley songs, and walking unsteadily towards the camera with mournful little eyes - because animal rights activists are apparently calling for him to be put to death.

The argument, supposedly, is that since Knut is a zoo-born bear, and has been rejected by his mother (how COULD SHE!?!?!), he will never grow up to be real polar bear, gamboling on the ice floes, and should therefore start his career as a fur coat as early as possible.

When the news broke, pictures of Knut were flashed across the world's TV screens. The Chinese panda cubs, those shameless media tarts (and defending world champions of cute) had some new footage out that day, but editors didn't bat an eyelid. No-one wanted anything but Knut.

Some translation may be needed. "Tarts," to the Brits, are what "ho's" and "sluts" are to American high schoolers. The rest is quite clear, and, I think, cleverly written.

The story includes a link to blog called Knut, das Eisbärbaby (Knut the ice-bear baby) with lots of pix, audio and video files. The text and audio are in German, but the pictures aren't. So here we have an example of cross-platform convergence. Channel 4 concludes:

Now you could almost believe that all the media outlets that covered the Knut story weren't interested in the actual truth, and just wanted to run some pictures of an unfeasibly cute little cub. I'm sure that's not the case. But we're glad to be able to bring you the bear facts.

And of course that's what Channel 4 is doing. It may be all I'm doing, too, by posting the item to our class blog. But I wouldn't want to say that on April Fool's Day.