Herald Sun commentator Andrew Bolt is never far from the attention of the Wankley judges and this week was no different as he tore into the family of Skye Webbe, the passenger in a high-speed car crash that ended in the death of four people in Canberra. As Skye’s mother Debbie Webbe went on A Current Affair to air her frustrations at the police for their role in the incident, Bolt couldn’t resist:
“Oh, I see, Mrs Webbe. There are no real criminals, right? Just the nice people you know who by pure chance mix with some faceless baddies, and can’t possibly be blamed when they steal other people’s cars, break into their houses, use false number plates, give two fingers to court orders, drive like death, flee the police and kill two parents and their baby, Brody.”
Bolt went further, criticising Webbe as “she wore a sleeveless shirt to better show her tatt” and alluded to a “scary” subculture that mourned with Jim Beam instead of flowers. Then, just for good measure, he threw this hand grenade into the mix:
“What a world we are literally creating. Two centuries ago in Britain, the rich outbred the poor, and pushed their values down the social scale. Now the poor — many virtuous, yes, but others lazy, careless or unsocialised — outbreed the rich, and the mob’s values are pushed up.”
ACA, meanwhile, has been entirely distracted by the back-stage drama on Hey Dad!. Amidst the usual schedule of dodgy builders, miracle diets and grocery prices it hit the jackpot this week in airing actress Sarah Monahan’s allegations that she was subjected to sexual abuse on the set. Blanket coverage was spun into ratings gold in the eternal struggle against Today Tonight.
While the original story is current affairs television at its seedy and sordid best, it is the subsequent naming and shaming of actor Robert Hughes as the alleged perpetrator that sees ACA take out this week’s Wankley. ACA named Hughes — who played the character of Mr Kelly on the show — before Monahan had provided a statement to NSW police.
Hughes is yet to be charged with any offence, yet ACA have been barely able to hide their indignant rage, splashing the word “predator” all over images of Hughes as they dispatched a sleuth to hunt him down in Singapore.
In an attempt to justify their crucifixion of Hughes, Grimshaw delivered a sanctimonious explanation on Wednesday night as to why they chose to publicly connect Hughes to the Monahan allegations. Then, last night, ACA muddied the waters further by airing additional allegations, as two sisters — their images blacked out but their voices clear — accused Hughes of abusing them as well. Only now, Grimshaw assured us last night, Wankley Award in hand, will the program co-operate with police.
Hughes has denied the allegations and is talking to the lawyers. Guilty or innocent, his inevitable argument of a prejudiced trial seems watertight.
I must say that I agree with Crikey that any trial of Hughes over these allegations has been prejudiced. ACA is a bloody disgrace, it would be nice to see them hauled up for contempt.If Hughes is in fact innocent of these charges let’s hope he collects heavy damages; although Ch9 probably would regard the payout as a normal business expence.
Incidentally did I hear correctly that the young lady has complained of inappropriate touchoing of her “boobs”, and that this occurred while she was aged six!
Where do you start with ACA ? gutter “Journalism” at its very best. Why doesn’t someone ambush that smarmy ambulance chaser ben fordham with some hard facts about his journalistic cred. Grimshaw will no doubt be nominated for an award for this garbage… I look forward to media watch monday night.
While being far from a Boltean I can sympathise with the frustration and anger about the subculture that the driver and his girlfriend come from. Bottles and cans of whisky and coke left at a makeshift memorial are symptomatic of a toxic subculture that impacts on all of us in virtually every city and town across Australia.
One of the more obvious impacts is the car hooning and the danger, noise pollution and physical damage (eg to parks) that results. Not enough is being done to impede this sort of behaviour. While the sociological causes do need to be addressed, that is a long-term project, and that does not obviate the need for tough laws and the will to enforce them.
The poor “outbreed” the rich – what delightfully apocalyptic imagery. I love it when ultra-right wingers tip their hand and reveal their phobias.
Mrs Webbe had every right to complain, her daughter is seriously injured and she was an innocent party to the whole catastrophe.
The police are cowboys who put the value of a bloody stolen car before the lives of the people they consider to be serious “criminals”, a car can be replaced but lives can’t should be the maxim.
Do you think the owner of the car cares too much about his car with 4 people dead, one very sick and the police copping out as they are?
As for the ACA story, smut at it’s best but what if all of it is true? The Monaghan sisters did not seem to be lying.