First things first, let's leave the issue of Tony Abbott shaking like a Dancing Elvis car ornament to one side. At the end of the day, his reaction is a political issue and should be seen as such compared to the main, ethical issue.
The ethical verdict is in, and Channel 7 are a bunch of f***sticks.
Trying to use the death of a soldier to pin something on Abbott has backfired in their faces. The Abbot tapes, viewed in their entirety, discredits the point of view that they were trying to portray with their creative editing. I would suggest that any reasonable person would realise that Tony Abbott would not be flippant over the death of any soldier, especially amongst other soldiers.
The media doesn't operate in a bubble, at the end of the day their actions have impacts that are too often seen as collateral damage. One such impact is outlined (though edited) below in a much more articulate way then I could manage.
http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thi ... nd-father/
That's the real story here.Lance-Cpl MacKinney deserves better, far, far better, given who he was and what he did than to be remembered for this. In his widow Beckie’s words, the Channel 7 news on Tuesday night was like a scab being ripped off a wound that is in the early stages of healing.
She saw herself on TV at his funeral. She saw images of him and them together and all because of something that was not really news.
The behaviour of the reporter, pulling a statement out of context and twisting it, has disappointed her, she says. I would use stronger words.
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Beckie is sad today, not because of what Abbott said, but because the most traumatic event in her 26 years is again the subject of discussion, public opinion and criticism.
S—t does happen, Beckie says. She knows this because it has happened to her.
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The stories were just there on the nightly news.
The journalists breaking the stories did not notify her about those stories airing.
It is hard for a family that is tiptoeing through grief. It is hard when they are fragile and tears are still at the surface.
Because he was slain in a war zone, as a member of the army and during an operation the Federal Government felt the nation needed to be a part of, everything is different.
The Premier, Opposition Leader and Prime Minister were present at Lance-Cpl MacKinney’s funeral, when his beautiful widow was racked with the unthinkable combination of inconsolable grief and labour pains. The leaders were all deeply compassionate towards Beckie and her family. Beckie said Abbott was a decent and good person, treating her and the reverence of the funeral with care and concern. He was the same when he called her on Tuesday night to discuss the Channel 7 story.
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She is so strong for one who has lost so much in such horrific circumstances. Her response to that observation is ``I have to be. I have two babies to look after.’‘
Since her husband died, Beckie has given birth to their son Noah, celebrated their daughter Annabell’s third birthday, endured their first Christmas apart in 10 years and suffered through the loneliness on their fifth wedding anniversary.
She has remarkable family support, but is ultimately without the love of her life.
The focus on Abbott will drift off in the hustle and bustle of the 24 hour news cycle. Mark Riley and Channel 7 will be off next week to chase somebody else on some other issue. But what won't drift off is the real hurt felt by the people most important and most relevant to this whole sorry story.
Mark Riley can put himself out there as a serious political journalist, as he did at election time last year, but that stunt he and Channel 7 pulled is straight out of the Today Tonight playbook. Journalists report the news. They shouldn't set out to distort it.
) have the gall to come out and cry "Foul" at being ambushed by the media...once again relying on the almost juvenile short term memory of the general public to conveniently forget how they repeatedly tried to ambush Julia with unannounced walk- ons at her press conferences by Mark (Who) Lathem at election time....see, he's such a forettable nobody that I can't even remember how to spell his name right... and yet Rupert found his comments to be so much more pertinent than the one time hero of the party that he so vehemently supports. As I've said, I find it all just so depressing...I've said this before on this forum but I just have to say it again...Australia is a wonderful country...it's AUSTRALIANS that are getting me more and more worried ... by the day it seems.