It’s the great institutionalised mass intrusion on the Australian media calendar. The news point: apparently people get drunk on the public lawns at the Melbourne Cup. Who knew?
Fact is most citizens consider it the one day of the year they can let their hair down in the certain knowledge that everyone else within the visible horizon is getting just as smashed as they are and no real harm can come to anyone.
Then, at around 6 o’clock, as the crowds thin and the staggerers are left staggering, prone and propped against mounds of their fallen friends, the tabloid photo hacks shuffle from their lairs and start hunting for the most grotesque, sad little shows of humanity’s susceptibility to the dangerous combination that is warm Carrington Blush and five inch heels.
There is no news in this, just a ritualised annual tabloid photo-gallery parade of shame, vulnerability and intrusion.
Here are some highlights from the enlightening Herald Sun gallery: Punters Off Their Races. Hey, at least we photoshopped their faces:
Yeah right. Like putting a narrow black stripe across people’s eyes magically stops them being recognised?
Nice one Crikey….like showing the photos again is really indicative of your superior moral stance on these things.
No one must have fun any more. Unless of course you’re rich and have a private island or similar where no-one can see you.
Hopefully Larry Flynt will put up some cash for similar images of @Crikeys team.
Somehow I don’t think it will cost as much or be as difficult to attain.
I disagree – while its lazy photojournalism, it is a counter-balance to and no worse than the shameless blind promotion of a commercial event. Besides, for those of us who have to share public transport with the self-absorbed over/under dressed loud-mouth drunks staggering home from the races all week it is a more accurate reporting of the event than the society pics from the friggin’ Birdcage.