Huh? That press release quotes the The Environment Agency’s Director of Water and National Drought Group chair saying “Simple, everyday choices – such as turning off a tap or deleting old emails – also really helps the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and wildlife” and includes “Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems” in its list of ways people should save water at home.
I admit I made this post without clicking through to the actual press release or seeing more than the paywall preview of the article; for a humorous post like this, i think just the headline from a paywalled article (if it’s from a reputable source) is sufficient. Now that you got me to read the actual press release, I see I was correct to assume that 404media’s amusing headline was in fact accurate.
How would you suggest they report this story differently? Highlighting the ridiculous part is what makes it worthy of reporting on it in their context at all.
I don’t know about you, but the title gave me the impression that the government is throwing their hands in the air and are like “there’s nothing we can do, maybe you can delete some emails and save data centers some water.” But the press release is about all the work they have done, all the efforts they have put into alleviating the drought situation. “What you can do at home” is the last section, and deleting emails is literally the last line of the article (a little tongue in the cheek even). And yet that’s what 404 highlights?!
Huh? That press release quotes the The Environment Agency’s Director of Water and National Drought Group chair saying “Simple, everyday choices – such as turning off a tap or deleting old emails – also really helps the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and wildlife” and includes “Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems” in its list of ways people should save water at home.
I admit I made this post without clicking through to the actual press release or seeing more than the paywall preview of the article; for a humorous post like this, i think just the headline from a paywalled article (if it’s from a reputable source) is sufficient. Now that you got me to read the actual press release, I see I was correct to assume that 404media’s amusing headline was in fact accurate.
How would you suggest they report this story differently? Highlighting the ridiculous part is what makes it worthy of reporting on it in their context at all.
I don’t know about you, but the title gave me the impression that the government is throwing their hands in the air and are like “there’s nothing we can do, maybe you can delete some emails and save data centers some water.” But the press release is about all the work they have done, all the efforts they have put into alleviating the drought situation. “What you can do at home” is the last section, and deleting emails is literally the last line of the article (a little tongue in the cheek even). And yet that’s what 404 highlights?!
Tell me they are not trying to generate outrage.