Wranglers say 'Hobbit' animals died on unsafe farm

[Malthus]

It isn't news because stuff like this doesn't raise a significant concern. The only reason it's being reported is because of the big-name draw of the movie

You just answered your own argument.
Sure there are probably far worse abuses that happen to animals throughout the world every day.
But none of them are being perpetrated by a Hollywood studio backed by enormous resources making a mass market film that will reap billions.  That does make this a story.

That doesn't make it truly newsworthy, any more than any other tabloid obsession with the minutiae of celebrity life. Particularly as, according to the article itself, the issues were investigated and remedied.

[mongers]

For a 'non-story' it certainly has some legs. 

[The Minsky Moment]

That doesn't make it truly newsworthy, any more than any other tabloid obsession with the minutiae of celebrity life.

But this isn't about the minutiae of celebrity life or indeed about celebreties at all.  It is about large business enterprises with high public profiles engaging in activities contrary to their own publicly announced (and promoted) policies and contrary to industry standards. 

[Razgovory]

That doesn't make it truly newsworthy, any more than any other tabloid obsession with the minutiae of celebrity life.

But this isn't about the minutiae of celebrity life or indeed about celebreties at all.  It is about large business enterprises with high public profiles engaging in activities contrary to their own publicly announced (and promoted) policies and contrary to industry standards.

That's not exactly mutually exclusive.  It can be tabloid obsession and about a large business enterprise with a public profile.

[The Minsky Moment]

That's not exactly mutually exclusive.  It can be tabloid obsession and about a large business enterprise with a public profile.

Right - and it also can be a real news story and tabloid grist at the same time.

[Jacob]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10848911

On November 6, the SPCA received an anonymous letter alleging animals had been mistreated at the farm between January and August 2011.

It alerted Sir Peter and the American Humane Association, which oversees animal welfare on films, and sent an SPCA inspector to the farm.

"There wasn't anything in the allegations," said SPCA national chief executive Robyn Kippenberger. "This is certainly not about the animals. If it had been about the animals someone would have come to us when it was happening, not months later.

No one did."

[garbon]

I'm not sure I really get that article given that the production company already admitted they'd mishandled things back then but had taken steps to fix them. 

That does point out that the timing of these comments was for tabloid like maneuvers though.

[Malthus]

That doesn't make it truly newsworthy, any more than any other tabloid obsession with the minutiae of celebrity life.

But this isn't about the minutiae of celebrity life or indeed about celebreties at all.  It is about large business enterprises with high public profiles engaging in activities contrary to their own publicly announced (and promoted) policies and contrary to industry standards.

Except that the facts as reported do not support that interpretation. Rather, what appears to be happening is some sort of employee-employer spat, in which a disgruntled former employee appears to be working PETA and the tabloid press in order to retroactively claim whistleblower status.

[garbon]

the tabloid press

That's a bit of a harsh way to describe AP.

[The Minsky Moment]

Except that the facts as reported do not support that interpretation. Rather, what appears to be happening is some sort of employee-employer spat, in which a disgruntled former employee appears to be working PETA and the tabloid press in order to retroactively claim whistleblower status.

Those facts, even as you characterize them, are not inconsistent with my intepretation.  They are about the way in which a newsworthy item came to the press.  The manner in which a story comes to press attention is often sordid.  The newsworthiness of the item stands or falls on its own significance, and not the motivations of the source.