POP CULTURE V POLITICS

Being an old newsman from way back, every once in a while I like to deliver a good old-fashioned scoop to my loyal readers, and so today I have a brand new exclusive for you: We’re all going to die.

Not just individually – although I have bad news on that front as well – but as a civilisation, society, species and whatnot.

The whole shebang, the great big everything, the chief cook and bottlewasher – gawn.

This is the finding of The Flash Report, research conducted by Yougov in which the pollster surveyed more than 1000 Australians about how much they knew about news and politics. And while the report doesn’t explicitly say “we’re all going to die” it is very much, as an old editor of mine used to say, “implied in the copy”.

For example, four out of 10

Gen Z and Millennials said they could confidently name members of The Wiggles compared to just one in four who said they could confidently name state premiers.

To be fair, the former have the advantage of all sharing the surname “Wiggle” but this still does not bode well for democracy.

Likewise Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to know how many Game of Thrones seasons have aired in the past 10 years than how many Australian PMS there have been.

Granted the answer to the latter question is 547 but still – there’s no excuse for that kind of ignorance. And it’s not just the young – although obviously I will be blaming them for everything anyway.

Twice as many Australians could recall Ash Barty’s retirement from tennis (47 per cent) as could recall NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian calling the PM “a horrible, horrible person”.

Honestly, what does a politician have to do to get attention?

Fortunately there is a cure for this existential catastrophe in the form of an incredible new news streaming service, coincidentally also called Flash.

By another uncanny coincidence it features my amazing Sky News show,

The Blame Game as well as, I am told, some other stuff. So do your part to stop the extinction of the human race and get on it.

To watch Joe on The Blame Game as well as 25 Australian and international news channels, go to flashnews.com.au