Most students dreaming of a career in the media industry have to learn the hard way why more senior colleagues are such pedantic curmudgeons. The industry is notoriously unforgiving of cub reporters, employing them at slave wages, ripping up copy to make them cry when an infinitive is inappropriately split, and chewing them out if they get the name of a famous person, like Springbok captain Jacob Xuma, wrong.

ANN7, the new Gupta-owned news channel, has blown new life into the media industry, however, by making it easy for would-be media stars to learn their trade. It does this by broadcasting a 24-hour collection of mesmerising errors, gaffes, amateurism and incompetence every young newscaster should avoid.