Ardent Leisure CEO gets death threats over Dreamworld tragedy

Isentia index: Ardent Leisure CEO gets death threats over Dreamworld tragedy

Ardent Leisure CEO Deborah Thomas has referred social media threats against herself and her family to NSW Police, after media outlets published photographs of her apartment building and the school her teenage son attends.

Crikey

Nov 02, 2016

The Dreamworld tragedy happened early last week, but the focus is now on the event as a case study in crisis communications. Ardent Leisure CEO Deborah Thomas has referred social media threats against herself and her family to NSW Police, after media outlets published photographs of her apartment building and the school her teenage son attends. Expect to see this back in the top five as the coroner’s investigation wraps up (with footage of a crash-test dummy re-enactment already online).

There’s one week until we find out the results of the US presidential election, with media forgoing last week’s confidence for a Hillary Clinton win and publishing polls that say Donald Trump is at least closely behind, if not ahead, after the FBI announced it had reopened its investigation into Clinton’s emails. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign trail focus on voter fraud came back to bite him — OK, probably more of a nibble — after Trump voters were caught voting more than once.

The government’s plan to ban any refugees who have been processed offshore from ever visiting Australia has been lauded and dismissed by the usual suspects, including former PM Kevin Rudd who joined the opposition with an opinion piece in Fairfax, and Senator Pauline Hanson saying the government was taking cues from her One Nation party. A debate on Q&A fuelled social media coverage, with Health Minister Sussan Ley on the panel to field audience questions.

There’s been less coverage overall for Iraq and Syria, but more evenly spread across platforms, as the UN released death stats this morning and Turkey amasses tanks and troops near the Iraqi border. Meanwhile, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu says bombing in Aleppo by rebels backed by Western governments has infinitely delayed peace talks with Syria.

And former senator Bob Day resigned from Parliament after his group of building companies collapsed, but before the Senate President announced there were issues with his Senate spot. A High Court case is likely to follow – but don’t worry! South Australians won’t have to vote again. Or so they say.