Remember That Daily Tele Piece On Gen Y ‘Bludgers’? Next Time They Might Want To Do A Fact-Check

We all know how much News Corp loves to lay into the youths for being nothing more than a bunch of pot-smoking, loud music-listening, job-ditching layabouts. Case in point: last week’s mouth-frothing Daily Telegraph article featuring a 17-year-old named Amy Arman who was quoted as saying she’d “never get a job” and that “to be honest I don’t even try.”

“A New Breed” Of Gen Y Bludgers Are Destroying Australia, According To The Daily Telegraph

Unfortunately, so enormous was the paper’s desire to get those damn kids off their lawn that they may have overlooked that thing you have to do in journalism where you investigate whether your source is actually telling the truth.

As it turns out, Amy does have a job, with her father Steven subsequently telling The Daily Telegraph that “she’s just a silly little teenager who was acting up and wanted her five minutes of fame.”

“She made the whole thing up,” said Steven. “She’s been working at Maccas for seven months.” He also refuted the claim that Amy had applied to receive Centrelink payments.

“She’s a good girl and has been depressed recently. I’m sending her to see a counsellor,” he added.

You’ve got to admit, it’s a little hypocritical for a writer with a national newspaper to accuse a teenager of being lazy while failing to do their own job correctly. Still, I’m sure at least one of the parties involved has learnt a valuable lesson about responsibility and will be more cautious in the future.