Sydney Morning Herald opt for Mona Lisa over budget, wars, knife crime, DV

If you want to lose weight, simply eat 30 grams of protein within half an hour of waking up. If you want to feel bad about the world within half an hour of waking up – look at the front of a newspaper.

At the moment there are plenty of terrible things to choose from when opting for a splashy news story to adorn the front of your print edition: the looming Federal Budget, overseas wars, a domestic violence scourge, increased knife crime (or rather, increased reporting on knife crime) and various other societal ills.

The Sydney Morning Herald — independent always, despite being owned by one of the largest media companies in the country — has opted to avoid all that mess and focus on Mona Lisa’s smile – a 500+ year-old mystery that only the inner-pages of today’s SMH — or my year 10 art teacher — can explain.