A local man has accused the Herald Sun of using so-called “weather scaremongering” in an underhanded attempt to attract more traffic to its news website. Shane Tomlinson made the bold claim after the leading news website published an article yesterday afternoon that warned city workers of extreme weather that was due to hit Melbourne just in time for the evening commute.
Speaking to The Watsonia Bugle today to confirm his position, Tomlinson said, “It’s happened a few times now, but yesterday was the first time I realised why they do it. Of course a headline warning of shit weather right on 5pm is going to get a whole bunch of clicks from bored office workers sitting at their desk counting down the minutes until knock off.”
Tomlinson then claimed that last night’s weather wasn’t even that bad, and that the image accompanying the clicky headline was not even relevant to the 5pm timeslot. He said, “The main image was of a rain radar showing a massive cloud about to swamp the CBD, but the actual radar at the same time looked nothing like that. Last night wasn’t even that bad but, sure enough, I bet heaps of people clicked on that article out of pure fear. It’s very sneaky. You guys at the Bugle should try it, instead of just openly whining about people not reading your articles.”
The Watsonia Bugle 