Poland:
From one of Australia’s most experienced television news directors, who has asked to remain anonymous: Re. Yesterday’s editorial. Just had to share how gob smacked I was to read in Crikey of the Oz media’s treatment — or lack of — of the Polish president death crash.
Charles Richardson’s account yesterday was sobering enough. But going further, the Katyn connection alone rates as a monumental and compelling human interest and tragic irony story.
Even without a president and all his men and women, this was a bunch of people (including descendents of the victims) being firewalled on their way to commemorating an atrocity that lives in a nation’s psyche and has universal resonance.
For a certain generation — including well-read decision makers in all those worthy newsrooms — even the barest inkling of Katyn should have registered. For anyone with even the slightest interest in WW2 Katyn is a byword. Not only for what happened — a single genocide by Soviets of 20,000 of the officer and intellectual elite of Poland with the collusion of other Poles — but for what followed.
Fifty years of the Soviets blaming the Nazis before Gorby recanted. Seventy years of suspicion, hatred, recriminations and also rebuilding of relationships and trust. Countless books, current affairs shows, documentaries and even films have been made. As someone wrote this was one of the most harrowing events in 20th century Poland. I first read about it as 10-year-old and don’t think that’s unusual for my generation, the generation that’s running newsrooms or populating its most influential reporters, subs and producers. How could so many go MIA?
A significant percentage of the audience would have made the connection themselves. Those who wouldn’t surely would have got it when it was explained. Classic water cooler stuff.
Peter Luetjens writes: Well you have to hand it to SBS World News then, which ran 3 separate stories on the Polish disaster before moving on to their second item (the Thai unrest). Why anyone would watch any other FTA news program is beyond me, it is leaps and bounds beyond anything else on TV.
Nine cameraman lynched on Twitter:
Brian Mitchell writes: Re. “Nine cameraman lynched on Twitter: ‘I’m not a racist‘” (yesterday, item 2). I viewed the Media Watch footage of the Gad Amr vs. Channel Nine cameraman Simon Fuller. No-one comes out of it looking too flash, Jonathon Holmes included. Fuller was doing his job, capturing vision for the evening news. He was on a public street, where journalists have a right to film and photograph people. He did not physically impede the Amrs from going about their business. The Amrs may have not enjoyed being filmed but they should have had the maturity, patience and tolerance to endure it.
None of this excuses Fuller’s racist outburst — particularly given he issued it as they were walking off. As for Holmes, more and more he seeks to corral journalism into an inoffensive politically correct box: Don’t report this because family members find it distressing, don’t report that because someone might read it and self-harm, don’t report something else because someone, somewhere, will be offended by it.
Now he’s suggesting journalists should simply pack up their cameras when the subject of their attention says “stop”.
It would have been heartening if Holmes had commented Fuller had been well within his rights to film the Amrs, that the Amrs were out of line with their attempt to intimidate Fuller into stopping, and that Fuller should have shown more professionalism by not responding to their provocation with his racist outburst.
Does the truth matter anymore?:
Martin Gordon writes: Re. “Arbiter of asylum claims casts doubt on Rudd’s application freeze” (yesterday, item 11). What do the UN High Commissioner for refugees, the Sri Lankan Government, Tamil and Hazara representatives, the Pakistani Government, school communities with complaints of being locked out of education stimulus spending, health economists who point out flaws in the “Rudd health revolution”, unhappy employees and employers with so-called award simplification have in common?
They are wrong!
At least according to various Labor Government Ministers who blithely disregard anything that disagrees with their script. It must be wonderful to live in a world of such certainty and “truth”.
Fairfax:
Barrie O’Shea writes: Re. “Fairfax ignored warnings over Melbourne Weekly distribution problems” (Friday, item 4). There was a copy of the Melbourne Weekly in the mail box when I arrived home on Monday night, jamming it up and almost preventing the postman from delivering the genuine mail. Then there was another copy in with yesterday morning’s Age. This has happened several times in the past month.
Is this how they boost circulation figures? Fortunately, the recycling bin had not been emptied yet, so they both went in there. Why is this not classed as junk mail?
The 7.30 Report:
Keith Perkins writes: Being out of the state for a couple of months I must have missed the name change of the popular early evening ABC show from the 7-30 report to the Tony Abbott half-hour.
Oh dear Martin, and you would willingly have all those asylum seekers shipped back to die.
Well, Brian, I watched the Media Watch episode and you must be the only person in the country who believes it shows the Amrs made “An attempt to intimidate Fuller into stopping”. To most of us, it looks like Simon Fuller was under instructions to provoke an emotional outburst from the Amrs as it would be great pictures for a racist slanted news item – something which succeeded spectacularly until a Channel 7 employee with a conscience slipped Media Watch the damning footage. The Amrs were walking away and Fuller did something to turn them round and get his required pictures. In fact, the racist story actually broadcast by channel 7 used pictures from Fuller’s earlier provocation – telling the Amrs to “F*ck off” when they were also walking away. This story is a chilling insight to the amoral dirty race to the bottom we are seeing from the entire FTA commercial media as they cannibalise their news and current affairs divisions in search of survival.
Keith
The more Abbott is shown on tv the lest likely he’s going to be elected pm.
Keep up the good work 7.30 report, Abbott is a disgrace.
Dr Harvey M Tarvydas
Re Poland: you wrote
“From one of Australia’s most experienced television news directors, who has asked to remain anonymous: Re. Yesterday’s editorial. Just had to share how gob smacked I was to read in Crikey of the Oz media’s treatment — or lack of — of the Polish president death crash.”
Katyn is the incident you are talking about, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre of the elite Polish officer class (20,000) in 1940.
When Hitler gave Lithuania to Stalin in 1942 seducing him to cheat on the allies by paying for it in gold and oil my father tried to convince his family and friends to leave with him before Stalin arrived because he pointed to this Pol Pot behaviour and said we’re dead.
They couldn’t believe that Stalin would ever hurt the likes of them so dad fled on his own with wife and infant daughter in toe to hide as an illegal from Hitler (safer than Stalin) in Germany.
His family and friends were murdered, he was right, he survived Hitler (with some high danger) and Stalin wiped out half the population of Lithuania.