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Hanson: Media Watch ‘dangerous’, Press Council waits
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The ABC Media Watch program has been “dangerous and simplistic” in its criticism of News Limited CEO John Hartigan in the wake of the Pauline Hanson photograph affair, according to News Limited’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Greg Baxter. Last night’s Media Watch program suggested Hartigan’s campaign against proposed privacy legislation had been undermined by the publication of the photos in News Limited’s Sunday tabloid newspapers. This morning, Baxter said that Hartigan himself had no comment on Media Watch, but that:
Meanwhile, the Australian Press Council has said it will not be making a public statement on the affair, because of the chance that it may come before it for adjudication. So far, no complaint has been received. The Executive Secretary of the Council, Jack Herman, said that if a complaint was made, the issue would be whether News Limited could establish the public interest in publishing the photographs and breaching privacy. “Did the publication reveal something about her public role or her policies? That would be the kind of issue the Council would consider,” Herman said. This was assuming that the pictures were of Hanson. If they were of some other woman, then she may in turn have grounds for complaint. Herman said that privacy complaints were harder to substantiate for public figures, but that in its adjudication concerning Senator Bob Woods, the Council had recognised that public figures do have a right to privacy. In that case, the Daily Telegraph published photographs taken of Woods and his wife in conversation in their backyard by a photographer standing outside the home. The Council noted that there were legitimate public interest issues involving Woods, but found that the photos were “a blatant example of a breach of privacy” and that it saw “no compelling public interest in the obtaining and publication of pictures of this kind.” |
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9 Comments
Has no one done the maths?
According to http://www.aph.gov.au/library/parl/38/mpsbyage.htm Pauline was born May 27, 1954.
It is now 2009. 1977 was 32 years ago. 1975 was 34 years ago. So according to Jack the pictures were taken 32-34 years ago, not 30 years ago.
Being born in 1954, Pauline is now 54 years old, turning 55 in May and she turned 21 in 1975 and 23 in 1977.
Why was the word teenager being used???
Media watch is a gem amongst a lot of commercial crap,
News Ltd are scum dredging opportunists and very good at it.
More power to Media Watch, and a note to News Ltd .
Please use a gentler news print, the one you use now leaves marks on my backside.
When will the media realise that by going after Pauline Hanson with smear does nothing but mobilise her supporters out there in “”Disaffected Land” and create a wave of martyrdom greater than anyone could imagine?
Many have probably forgotten that Hanson’s now famous “please explain?” came about as a response to a question from (then) 60 Minutes reporter Tracy Curro who asked her if she was a xenophobe.
People who feel left behind and marginalised in our society love nothing more than to have a hero who feels their pain - and that’s all well and good except the hero is nothing short of a wolf in sheep’s clothing who might do a reasonable job of enscapulating the marginalised ones’ disenchantment, but does far greater damage to the reputation of the country as a whole.
I was living in Canada during 1997 and recalled opening a newspaper on a train from Montreal to Toronto to read a full page account of Australia’s racism as extolled by Hanson. It wasn’t a good look.
Whenever the so-called ‘elites’ (ie media/major parties) go after Hanson in this way all they do is stoke her fire and I’m afraid, it’s we milk-mannered Queenslanders who aspire towards stable government, who could bear the brunt of their stirring should Hanson win the seat of Beaudesert AND then go on to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.
Wish us well….
Glenn, more or less said it all. Not sure about the newsprint crack. But other three points excellent.
Greg Baxter brings to mind the Mandy Rice Davies rejoinder: Well ‘e would, wouldn’t ‘e?
Well said Jenny. Isn’t the real problem here that so much media focus is on so little. Isn’t it all a distraction from the real issues facing the country and the world. Isn’t it yet one more example of Australia following the American media with its focus on Britney Spears and other mindless trivia as a means of distracting the public from asking real questions and getting real answers.
When did you last (if ever) see pictures of Israel’s apartheid wall or the tens of thousands of “settler” houses built on Palestinian land? When did the media ever stop bleating about the Israeli soldier allegedly kidnapped by Hamas and print an article about the hundreds of Palestinians including members of Parliament kidnapped by the Israelis?
Can you recall ever reading about the FBIs evidence at the Moussaui trial that the famous cell phone calls from the “hijacked” planes on 9/11 were not in fact made? Or that independent scientists discovered nano-thermite was used to destroy WTC towers 1, 2 and 7?
Gerard Henderson is still referring (and he is not alone) to Oswald as the lone nut gunman who killed Kennedy for God’s sake, as though the evidence from the last 45 years did not exist.
Instead we get a relentless diet of sportmen’s drinking and sexual misconduct, Britney Spears’ addictions, is it really Hansen’s belly button, and other totally inconsequential matters ad nauseum.
The nadir was reached last night (17/3) when SBS ran yet another propaganda piece from the US saying how much life was “improving” for Iraqis since the “Troubles” began in 2003. I seem to recall that 2003 was the year of an illegal invasion based on a monstrous series of lifes for which the perpetrators such as Blair, Bush and Howard have yet to be held to account.
Were it not for the internet we would all be consigned to a fact free bubble.
it’s hard to imagine anyone more mercenary, hypocritical and generally loathsome than newscrap. its journalists are the dregs of humanity. they make pauline hanson look like a paragon of honesty and decency.
Hanson is a by-product of a dumbed down, biased right wing communication platform. Commercial media does very little to enhance political exchange in this country by restricting online debate to two states needless to say leaving Queensland, the NT, Tasmania and WA bereft. Radio’s political profile is zilch because right-wing zealots man and commandeer on-air content at Fairfax and Mac Bank networks. As for regional and metro TV they’ve wimped out aside from fizzy sensationalism leaving the ABC to get serious on national political exchange. As for News Limited and Fairfax print they’re full right throttle on fairy-floss too. Boobs, bums, beer and human degradation all elevated to headline documentaries. Is it any wonder a female candidate in a state election is set upon by pack media with agendas.
Peter (3.53pm) great piece of writing!
Yes, please readers, wish those of us in Queensland luck come Saturday. Never before have I felt such disillusion about an election.