I Smell a Rat

One of the most egregious examples of yellow journalism I've seen lately screamed from the first sentence of an article with a similarly yellow title: Dirty rat attacks tourist.

The opening line read:

A visitor was attacked yesterday by a rat in one of Hong Kongs [sic; this is a newspaper, learn to show possession properly, ed.] most tourist-infested districts raising fears the incident could damage the SARs [sic; clearly you weren't listening, ed.] reputation as a holiday destination.

Infested, huh? Like how they shoehorned that little word in there? The piece went on to lament how Central district should be cleaner and how "we cannot show tourists we have rats", to which I say, grow up. Every port city on the planet has a rat problem that can never be fully conquered.

More to the point, a rat bite is an exceedingly rare thing. In a different rag I found this quote:

Rats are commonplace in this alley because the MTR station's rubbish collection is right here," said the stallholder, who has been there for more than 50 years. "But it's the first time I have seen someone bitten."

One bite in 50 years is not an emergency. It may be a little embarrassing, but we hardly need to run around screaming with our arms in the air.

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