SABC3's news bulletin on Friday, the SABC's main flagship television news broadcast of the public broadcaster, turned shamelessly entertainment tabloid at the tail end of Friday night's broadcast when the SABC news readers Vabakshnee Chetty, Simon Burke and Nompu Siziba all shared their own baby photos when they were small and speculated about princess Kate Middleton's baby.
After an end run story about the pending birth of the British royal baby of William and Kate, the SABC News suddenly didn't just turn tabloid but turned inward on itself when itself became the news.
Vabakshnee Chetty showed and shared photos with viewers in quick succession of business news reader Nomphu Siziba as a baby (complete with leopard print surface), business news reader Simon Burke (as a precocious baby with a bottle and as a little boy), and then of herself sitting next to an old TV set (Vabakshee Chetty was clearly always destined to end up in television!).
"Aw. Look at you! So sweet!" he exclaimed when Vabakshnee Chetty's photo was shown.
"This is sooo embarrassing. Mortifying indeed. I wish baby watch would come to an end because that is too much," he said.
"But there is so many questions about the royal baby," said Vabakshnee Chetty excitedly, now launching into full-on E! Entertainment E! News mode - signaling the start of the rampant speculative statements, half-truths and fluff filler which are all so often disguised as questions, and which are so endemic to unverified and gossipy entertainment news reportage.
"Will the royal baby be ginger like Uncle Harry? Will the royal baby have green eyes? Will it have blue eyes like William?" asked Vabakshnee Chetty.
"And Kate is the first commoner to marry into the royal family in something like, 17th centuries," Vabakshnee Chetty told the nation.
"The ginger hair just bring up soo many questions," Simon Burke chimed in. "So many unanswered questions..."
"Oh, stop Simon!" chastized Nompu Siziba pegged seemingly unconfortably in-between Simon Burke and Vabakshnee Chetty,behind the SABC news anchor desk and unable to escape the baby banter.
"Isn't there some guy ... Admiral..." continued Simon Burke.
"Why is my picture still on the screen?" he asked.
"Because you're the cutest one," said Vabakshnee Chetty.
Neither Giuliana Rancic nor Lalla Hirayama couldn't have done it better.
