DirectAnywhere
26th May 2005, 21:26
(WARNING: this is a rant with very little aviation connection apart from the at best tenuous link to someone we'll call "Bruce", a QANTAS baggage handler in Brisbane).
Is it just me or is everyone else completely perplexed by the amount of media coverage this woman's trial has been getting?
I don't remember this much media coverage for a drugs trial since Barlow and Chambers, the two Australians hanged in Malaysia in the '80s for heroin smuggling.
Both Channel 9 & 7 - never the best indicators I know - are running live uninterrupted coverage from midday. The last time they did that was the September 11 attacks. Even the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan weren't considered as newsworthy as the fate of this one woman.
As some sort of idea as to how newsworthy the rest of the world considers Corby's plight - and to try and work out how to spell her first name! - I Googled Corby. Apart from the most recent news link which appears automatically at the top of the page, "Corby Borough Council", "Stephanie Corby - Jazz Singer" and "Corby Electric Trouser Presses for the Home and Hotels" all rate higher. The first reference to Schapelle is actually half way down page 2.
Even the Indonesian judge says he's bemused by all the media coverage.
John Howard, ever the media savvy politician, realises the impact this trial has had in Australia and is trying to get a one off prisoner transfer should she be found guilty. I believe this is a travesty when you consider the fate of other Australians left to rot in jails around the world.
Derryn Hinch was howled down last week when he dared to say all this attention was because she was an attractive woman with big t^&ts (his words not mine).
Have we become so shallow that the millions of children dying in Africa as a result of war, famine, HIV, Cholera, Typhoid, Malaria and so on barely raise an eyebrow while the fate of an Australian hairdresser stops the nation?
If so, it's a sad indictment on the state of this country.
Or, have I got it all wrong? Is she an innocent Australian caught in a tangled web of lies and deceit who deserves all the support the Australian Government and Australian media can provide? Is she really the quintessential "Little Aussie Battler"? Let me know what you think.
Is it just me or is everyone else completely perplexed by the amount of media coverage this woman's trial has been getting?
I don't remember this much media coverage for a drugs trial since Barlow and Chambers, the two Australians hanged in Malaysia in the '80s for heroin smuggling.
Both Channel 9 & 7 - never the best indicators I know - are running live uninterrupted coverage from midday. The last time they did that was the September 11 attacks. Even the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan weren't considered as newsworthy as the fate of this one woman.
As some sort of idea as to how newsworthy the rest of the world considers Corby's plight - and to try and work out how to spell her first name! - I Googled Corby. Apart from the most recent news link which appears automatically at the top of the page, "Corby Borough Council", "Stephanie Corby - Jazz Singer" and "Corby Electric Trouser Presses for the Home and Hotels" all rate higher. The first reference to Schapelle is actually half way down page 2.
Even the Indonesian judge says he's bemused by all the media coverage.
John Howard, ever the media savvy politician, realises the impact this trial has had in Australia and is trying to get a one off prisoner transfer should she be found guilty. I believe this is a travesty when you consider the fate of other Australians left to rot in jails around the world.
Derryn Hinch was howled down last week when he dared to say all this attention was because she was an attractive woman with big t^&ts (his words not mine).
Have we become so shallow that the millions of children dying in Africa as a result of war, famine, HIV, Cholera, Typhoid, Malaria and so on barely raise an eyebrow while the fate of an Australian hairdresser stops the nation?
If so, it's a sad indictment on the state of this country.
Or, have I got it all wrong? Is she an innocent Australian caught in a tangled web of lies and deceit who deserves all the support the Australian Government and Australian media can provide? Is she really the quintessential "Little Aussie Battler"? Let me know what you think.