JOE BEEKEN AGAINST THE NZ HERALD

The NZ Herald published a story on 3 August 2024 headlined Mysterious night time visitor ‘yeeted’ out of Te Awamutu house.

The story was taken from a local Facebook page in which a young couple apologised to the owner of a young black cat they threw out the window after it surprised them by climbing into their bed.

Joe Beeken complained that the story encouraged cruelty against defenceless animals. It made light of throwing a cat out the window. There were news stories about young people throwing cats and dogs out of moving cars, for fun and this story invited “morons to find attacking cats and dogs funny” by its light hearted tone and use of current lingo. The definition of “yeeting” was throwing something with a lot of force.

The NZ Herald did not believe the story promoted cruelty. The point of the story was the woman’s apology to the unknown owner for her panicked reaction of tossing the cat out the window. The word ”yeet" was not coined by the reporter but was quoted from the woman in the story.

The NZ Media Council could not see how this article might have breached any of its principles. This was a light amusing story about cats, children and neighbourliness and did not encourage violence or cruelty to animals.  The tale was rueful and apologetic to the cat owner. There is no indication that the cat was harmed by being thrown out the window. 

There were no grounds to proceed.