Journalism’s silly season is upon us: What is it and where did it come from?

It’s that time of the year again, when news slows down, politicians and journalists alike take holidays and any old scoop will do, writes David Lister

In 2015, Star the duck from Devon became a celebrity for his bow tie and love of ale (SWNS.com)

It’s August and one looks back in awe at some of the great journalistic scoops from Augusts of yesteryear. The pulse raced at the report of senator John Kerry rescuing a hamster from the sea and massaging it back to life. The eyes widened at the feat of Eve Fielding, a pensioner from Margate, who grew a 23ft-high sunflower and named it, naturally, “The Eiffel Flower”.

Yes, it’s the silly season, that time of year when the news media simply does not have enough news, and has to search for the more fanciful variety.

In truth, as students of the genre will tell you, neither John Kerry’s hamster resuscitation nor the wonder of the Eiffel Flower are perfect silly season stories. A perfect silly season story is not just a one-off moment. It must run and run, ideally filling space for the whole of August. For that reason, it is only right to pay homage to the 2011 tale of Yvonne the cow who went on the run after “sensing” she was headed to the abattoir. The six-year-old cow provided a steady flow of headlines throughout August of that year until being captured with perfect timing at the end of the silly season on 1 September, and sent to an animal sanctuary.