Yesterday, as Peter Dutton fronted the media to provide an update on the health of an asylum seeker who set herself on fire on Nauru, he showed his usual compassion and understanding of nuance, as befits a senior minister responsible for the lives of some of the most desperate people on Earth.
The press conference was just before the budget lockup, wherein journalists would learn many of Australia’s onshore detention centres would be closed with no plan forthcoming as to how to handle the humanitarian disaster our asylum seeker processing has become.
Fairfax photographer Alex Ellinghausen snapped a photo of the Immigration Minister that speaks to the content of Dutton’s character. And Dutton’s people demanded that Fairfax delete it.
Peter Dutton’s staff wanted this photo deleted. Now it’s a meme #auspol https://t.co/P2I91rUhze pic.twitter.com/4NcxZmvtxv
— The Age (@theage) May 3, 2016
Good to know he has his priorities straight.
The truth of that old adage about the camera not lying.
If someone at Crikey thinks it can prosecute the case against the Government’s policy on immigration detention with tricked-up photos of the Minister, then journalism and public debate, my friend, is not your chosen career. These are serious issues that demand serious treatment, not cheap, personal innuendo about someone’s appearance.
Brett,
I agree with what you say but I suggest that you miss the point about the article and the photo. The photo is ‘real’ in that it was taken as it is, not photoshopped or a composite. And the issues is similar to the point you make ie that there are serious issues to discuss but that disproportionate attention is given to incidentals such as documentary evidence of unflattering lighting that is a matter of stage management rather than immigration policy.
agree with Anisa5!
I can’t see why the pic is thought to be so objectionable that staffers wanted to veto it.
However, as Nixon and so many others in public life find, it’s less the deed than the (attempt at) cover up.
If that light’n’shade shot is the worst one can think of a thing like Dunnuttin’ then someone needs to pay more attention, to what the thick bastard is doing!