Imperial Fruit: Bananas, Costs and Climate Change

The curved course of the ubiquitous banana has often been the peel…

The problems with a principled stand

In the past couple of weeks, the conservative parties have retained government…

Government approves Santos Barossa pipeline and sea dumping

The Australia Institute Media Release   Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Department has approved a…

If The Jackboots Actually Fit …

By Jane Salmon   If The Jackboots Actually Fit … Why Does Labor Keep…

Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council on Gaza…

The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power…

How the supermarkets lost their way in Oz

By Callen Sorensen Karklis   Many Australians are heard saying that they’re feeling the…

Purgatorial Torments: Assange and the UK High Court

What is it about British justice that has a certain rankness to…

Why A Punch In The Face May Be…

Now I'm not one who believes in violence as a solution to…

«
»
Facebook

Schapelle Corby, Terrorism And The Incredible Miracle Cure!

Ok, some of you may have missed it, but Schapelle Corby was released from jail and has returned to Australia. Now, I would have flown to Bali to cover the story but I actually have a part-time job at the moment and, while that makes it easier to afford the plane trip, it makes it harder to get time off.

But never fear, I’ve decided to cover it anyway. Here’s some Indonesian police:

Of course, there were a lot more protecting Schapelle from the media throng like me. So it looked more like this:

Ok, they weren’t actually Indonesian police, but they had the same types of jackets and if you don’t notice the lack of an “i” at the end of “Polis”, then you could pretend that they’re the ones keeping me and the rest of the media away from Corby while she’s whisked into a waiting car. For those of you who wondered what this looks like, here’s a car:

If you squint, you can even pretend that it’s the lady herself inside the car. In fact, for all I know, it could be. I mean, none of us have seen Schapelle for a while and it’s really, really important that we have lots and lots of Australian journalists to get footage of the actual police and the actual car and… Well, ok, they didn’t do much better than me at filming the actual Schapelle, but, hey, at least they didn’t boycott Qantas and helped boost the economy both here and in Bali…

Though one has to wonder why we need to actually spend so much time on a convicted drug smuggler… Yeah, I know, she was pretty and female, so she probably didn’t do it and someone probably framed her. Probably one of those decadent marriage equality supporting baggage handlers at Qantas.

Notwithstanding that, I still wonder why we needed to actual footage of her leaving the jail, arriving in Australia, picking her nose, giving the finger to a journalist or whatever it was that they hoped to film. After all, haven’t we got more important footage to view. Like the Manchester terrorist attack.

I mean, the Murdoch paper devoted nine pages to it, the day after. And another seven the next day. We need to have as much footage and print space as possible to things like that, because, well, if there’s one thing ISIS doesn’t want, it’s media coverage. I presume that’s true. Otherwise giving it so much media coverage would be doing exactly what the terrorists want, and surely we wouldn’t be doing that.

Take the way that Christian guy who killed two people in the US the other day was reported. No, I’m not saying that he was a Christian, his religion has nothing to do with this – that was his name, Jeremy Christian. He was shouting abuse at a Muslim woman and when some other people tried to calm him, he stabbed them. Nothing to do with religion – either his or theirs. Anyway, he was clearly trying to drum up support for his cause, so we’ve hardly heard anything about it.

And surely that’s how we’d report terrorist attacks, if the terrorists were attempting to draw attention to themselves and to use the killing of innocent people as a way to recruit new members. We report it in the same way we report most things: If there’s an Australian connection, it’s important. Otherwise it goes on page four.

As for the miracle cure, apparently if you stop reading the Murdoch papers, your depression lessens and your intelligence improves quite significantly.

41 comments

Login here Register here
  1. David1

    Schapelle? I am not familiar with a Schapelle…sounds like a skin disease with exclamation built in.

  2. Kronomex

    First off: I’m sick and bloody tired of hearing about Corby and Sainsbury and if it offends anyone then tough luck. Second: I’m betting that the media outlet that outbid all the rest of the slease media paid for the rent-a-cops. News? Absolutley laughable.

  3. Freethinker

    I share you views on that and irritates me no end that journalists dedicate so much time to this (Including The Guardian) instead of concentrating in more important events.
    This kind of news coverage including big sports events are many times used as an opportunity for government to put in place polices that are not popular.
    I just wonder what was introduced this time……………

  4. Noel

    The Australian media have again made themselves a laughing stock in the frenzied “coverage” of Schappelle Corby’s release and return to Australia. Start reporting something of real interest and importance..

  5. Jagger

    I heard that the shark who jumped into that blokes boat, was so sick of hearing about Schapelle Corby that it had committed suicide.

  6. Jamie

    True Noel, the media told us who they are on the weekend – gossips.
    All those boy and girl reporters doing the work of old maids, too funny.
    I suspect if they can break Corby they’ll get a scoop and boost profits.
    Stupid is as stupid does = MSM.

  7. RonaldR

    When there are important things the Media distracts people from real issues and is the so called Alternative Mass Media =The Blogs like this one are no different. Makes me ask is Rossle a redundant Murdoch Journalist or wannabe .

  8. Arthur Baker

    “one has to wonder why we need to actually spend so much time on a convicted drug smuggler”.

    Indeed. A good question. Which you then answered, although in a somewhat sarcastic tone: “Yeah, I know, she was pretty and female, so she probably didn’t do it and someone probably framed her. Probably one of those decadent marriage equality supporting baggage handlers at Qantas.”

    Well, I wonder if AIMN would like to address the question whether she was guilty or not. Address it properly, I mean, without all the sarcasm, using the evidence available, of which there is a lot. I look forward to a fact-based article on this from AIMN in the near future.

    To be clear, I don’t know whether she is guilty or not, but I do know there were some pretty dodgy circumstances surrounding the drugs in the bag. I also know she went through hell, including quite a long time wondering whether she might have to face a firing squad, then nearly a decade in a squalid Indonesian prison, for a crime about which you might have to admit there is some legitimate dispute about her guilt.

    She might be guilty. She might not. Could AIMN bring itself to address this, dispassionately, without the hysterics perhaps?

  9. Rossleigh

    RonaldR. Yes, I decided that the best way to be given a job with Murdoch was by being critical of his newspapers. That’s the sort of forthright criticism that young Rupert likes!

  10. Rossleigh

    As for me distracting from the “real issues”, well, clearly that was my plan because only the issues that RonaldR defines as issues are real and I’m sorry that I’ve distracted him from reality!
    Please, RonaldR, find your way back to reality! There’s not a moment to lose!

  11. Vikingduk

    Actually, ronny old son, everyone here is a former redundant wannabe news corpse journo, intent on providing your delusional brain with as much and even more information so that we can all hear the sound of an lgnorant fckwit whinge whine and moan, and in case you miss the connection, the ignorant fckwit would be you.

    This has been a paid for rant sponsored by soros funded UN communistic zionists lefty righty tree hugging greenies.

  12. Peter F

    I stopped reading murdoch press a couple of decades ago: do you think I can claim to be cured by now?

  13. The AIM Network

    Well, I wonder if AIMN would like to address the question whether she was guilty or not.

    Nobody here cares enough.

    But having said that, our authors are free to write about whatever they wish. If one of them wants to write about her guilt or her innocence then it is their call.

  14. Rossleigh

    Pete F – definitely. Personally I read them when I go to coffee shops for two reasons: First, to give myself ideas for blogs and second, to stop some other poor soul from harm. The equivalent of throwing oneself on the grenade to protect others!

  15. Johno

    They light a damm good fire.

  16. Freethinker

    Few year back the Murdoch papers were cut in strips and used in the “outside house”, now that sewerage it is completed in the big cities there is not longer use for that paper.
    Perhaps RonaldR still have some use for it.

  17. Arthur Baker

    “Nobody here cares enough.”

    Thank you for your frankness. In what circumstances, then, would AIMN care enough to write about a possible miscarriage of justice? What would it take? What disqualifies Schapelle Corby from the attention of AIMN’s usual inquiring mind?

  18. Michael Taylor

    Arthur, if I can answer that …

    It has never been raised here, so for admin to say that “nobody cares enough” is perhaps premature. It might be a hot topic among our readers, but I would take a guess that it probably isn’t. From what I’ve seen on Facebook and Twitter, people are sick of hearing about her.

    Admin was right though: it’s up to the authors to write about whatever they want. This site doesn’t tell the author’s what to write about. If one of them want to write about Corby then they have that autonomy. If they don’t want to write about Corby, then nobody will tell them to.

  19. Michael Taylor

    PS: we have a ‘Your Say’ section where we publish articles submitted by our readers. Any one of our readers may submit an article for publication about Corby if they wish.

  20. Pappinbarra Fox

    Arfur B, the point is immaterial because it is a strict liability offence. Exactly as in Australia. If the drugs are in your bag you are guilty. Simple.

  21. paul walter

    So nauseated at this repulsive mass binge from tabloid media. Why is she obliged to talk to scum like that?

  22. JohnI

    If you’re an Australian who gets arrested overseas and who wants media attention, make sure that you’re an attractive woman and the charges involve drugs.

    However, if you’re a businessman named Matthew and you fall foul of corruption overseas – forget about it. Just ask Matthew Joyce, who did four years in prison in Dubai. Or Matthew Ng, who did four years in prison in China.

    In both cases, their ‘crimes’ appear to have been no more than getting on the wrong side of the wrong people. And apart from a couple of diligent ABC journalists, no-one gave a toss about them.

    http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2014-01-19/5158690
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-30/matthew-ng-on-the-cost-of-doing-business-in-china/7554694

  23. Freethinker

    Unfortunately Johnl, the media in these cases publish what sell newspapers what the masses read.

  24. Matters Not

    Freethinker re:

    media in these cases publish what sell newspapers what the masses read

    It’s a bit more complicated. There’s also ‘clickbait’:

    Clickbait is a pejorative term for web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, especially at the expense of quality or accuracy, relying on sensationalist headlines or eye-catching thumbnail pictures to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over online social …

    As long as they ‘click’.

  25. Freethinker

    Yes, Matters Not, I agree and what you say is in line with my comment, advertising agents paid for space that it is popular and not the one that do not attract potential sales.
    That brings me to remember how successful was Ita Buttrose when she was in Cleo and later in Australia Women’s Weekly selling gossip and easy reading material.
    Then she funded Capricorn Publishing, and launched her own magazine, Ita with more intelligent reading and she have to close it.
    I think that her last adventure, Bark still going.
    It appears that important subjects do not attract readers and revenue form advertising.

  26. Arthur Baker

    “If you’re an Australian who gets arrested overseas and who wants media attention, make sure that you’re an attractive woman and the charges involve drugs.”

    Johnl, I couldn’t have cared less if Schapelle Corby was an “attractive woman”, as you judge her, or some wizened old man (perhaps resembling me). I couldn’t have cared less if the charges involved drugs or not. And I couldn’t have cared less if she wanted media attention or not.

    What is important to me is that there were, and 13 years later still are, some serious unanswered questions about how the drugs got into her bag, whether the Indonesian court delivered real justice, whether successive Australian governments provided the consular support one might have expected for an Australian in trouble overseas, and the circumstances of her imprisonment.

    I don’t care about her gender. I don’t care about her alleged attractiveness. I don’t care whether the charges involve drugs or not. I care about (a) whether she actually committed the crime, (b) whether she received a proper trial and eventually proper justice, and (c) whether she received appropriate support from Australian authorities.

    Is that so hard to comprehend? I make no judgement in these regards. I simply would like to see an unbiased discussion of these issues, without the inherent sarcasm and cynicism of this article.

    As regards Corby’s alleged desire for media attention, how does that stack up against her actions during her transit from Bali to Brisbane? She changed her flight at the last moment, specifically to AVOID media. She arranged a convoy from Brisbane airport, which split and went to numerous different destinations, specifically to AVOID media. How does that look, in your opinion, as a “desire for media attention”.

    Cut the woman a bit of slack, for the love of god. Can’t we get back to a sober consideration of whether she actually committed the crime and whether she received proper justice?

  27. jim

    “our” unbiased ABC stated Corby was “Busted” with 4’2 kg at bali, the guardian reported,”The convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has returned to Australia, having served jail time and supervised release in Indonesia after 4.2kg of cannabis was “found” in plastic-wrapped in her her bodyboard bag back in 2004, when she was 27. Busted means without a doubt guilty found means maybe guilty easy to see “our” ABC wants to demonise her for the rest of her life.

  28. Adrianne Haddow

    Arthur,
    ‘I care about (a) whether she actually committed the crime, (b) whether she received a proper trial and eventually proper justice, and (c) whether she received appropriate support from Australian authorities.’

    Do you ask the same questions about Julian Assange’s ‘imprisonment’ in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK?

    The UN has decided his confinement ( admittedly self imposed and definitely more preferable than confinement in one of the US torture holes) was a breach of human rights.
    His crime an allegation of rape, during consensual sex, oh, and publishing Wikileaks reports detrimental the reputation of the US war machine.
    Also the fact that he is still holed up there unable to leave because the Brits still have an arrest warrant for which will enable extradition to the USA.

    Do you share the same outrage concerning his plight?
    Or is it just your belief that the Indonesian justice system is not to be trusted because it’s not run by middle aged white men?

  29. Wun Farlung

    Jim
    The woman was convicted and was imprisoned-busted
    Our ABC in this case reporting facts

  30. Arthur Baker

    Adrianne, thanks for your excellent example of a “look-over-there” argument. I do have some opinions about Julian Assange, since you ask, but they are irrelevant here – this is an article about Schapelle Corby, in case you hadn’t noticed. And just how, from my misgivings about a single case in a single Indonesian court, you manage to infer a universal liking for justice systems run by middle aged white men, I simply fail to comprehend. Strawman arguments come in all shapes and sizes, but that one’s an absolute corker. You know as much about me as I know about you, namely virtually sod-all, so would it be too much to ask you to stick to the topic at hand, instead of this scatter-gun attempt at generalising my views?

  31. Geoffrey England

    Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if not one camera crew, one reporter or paparazzi turned up for her “triumphant” (I’m going to be sick here) return and all that money she spent on decoy cars and security was all for nothing, not to mention the ignominy of being a news has been, ex drug smuggler and criminal. She should have stayed in Bali where she deserves to eek out her miserable life in obscurity.

  32. havanaliedown

    An interesting contrast between the apprehension of Ms Corby and the interrogation of the “Bali Nine” heroin smuggling syndicate (if you recall video clips of both), is that when Ms Corby was surrounded in the customs hall, the marijuana package was being enthusiastically handled by more than one government agent – sans gloves. By any standard it ruined the evidence. If her’s (or somebody else’s) fingerprints were on the package, there was no longer evidence that she (or they) had touched it previously.

    When the “Bali Nine” heroin smuggling syndicate were shown with the packages still strapped to their worthless hides, the government agents were a least wearing gloves.

  33. Arthur Baker

    Oh, the vitriol, Geoffrey, the spite. As the author Rossleigh reminds us, Corby is “young and female”. And a fat lot of good that has done her, over the last 13 years, hey? Everywhere I look and listen, I see and hear spiteful comments such as this – “deserves to eek (sic) out her miserable life in obscurity”, “too much media coverage”, “sick of hearing about her”, on and on and on go the whines and the wails. If anything, it seems being young and female has had the opposite effect, converting her into an object of disdain verging on hatred for many Australians.

    For what? For displaying some fairly understandable emotion, perhaps initially at the realisation she may have to face a firing squad? How would you have reacted to that, or later on hearing the words “20 years” at the age of 26? How would you expect her to react? Bear in mind she maintained from the outset, and still does, that she had nothing whatever to do with the drugs in her bag. I can’t tell for sure whether she’s telling the truth about that, but I do recall some fairly strong suggestions that the bag might have been tampered with at Sydney airport, and that it had allegedly arrived in Bali several kilograms heavier than when she checked it in. How would you feel if you knew you’d been framed and faced either being shot or a longish stretch in some squalid Indonesian hell-hole?

    As for the media overkill, is that her fault? Did she request it? Or is it just a symptom of the ludicrous way our media present stories? Blaming her for spending money on decoy cars sounds to me a lot like blaming the victim. She’s the victim of the media hype, not the perpetrator – she plainly just knew the hype would occur, and thought up a rather clever way to avoid it. Good on her for that, say I.

    Watching the TV news isn’t compulsory. Pick up the remote and switch to another channel. Or (oh, the horror) maybe switch off and read a book instead. If you hate Schapelle Corby that much, why did you bother to read this article? Was your self-esteem enhanced by reading it, and by adding your own contribution to the hate-fest?

    I neither love nor hate the woman. I just want to really know whether she actually committed the crime, whether she got a fair trial, and whether she got enough consular assistance. All of which, I would suggest, are at the very least open to some doubt.

  34. Florence nee Fedup

    Simple. Corby was convicted, has done her time. Time to leave her in peace. That is what she and family are asking for.

    What media is doing, is cruel.

  35. Arthur Baker

    Florence, I agree with ” Time to leave her in peace”, if that’s what she and her family want.

    However, as havanaliedown points out, the evidence presented at her trial was rendered unreliable by the antics of the Indonesian police. Yet the Indonesian court accepted it and convicted her of it. There remain some unresolved issues.

    I suggest we are entitled to ask serious questions about who the perpetrator was (while not denying the possibility that it was Corby); about the reliability of the trial verdict (which has implications for all Australians who venture to Indonesia); and about whether Australian consular officials provided adequate assistance to an Australian citizen, guilty or innocent (which has implications for all Australians who venture anywhere overseas).

    Instead, what we get are sarcastic and cynical articles such as this one, seeking to trivialise the issue and cast Corby as the perpetrator of media hype instead of the victim.

    If the woman is in fact innocent (and who can say with 100% certainty that she is not?) then there’s also the question of who did plant the drugs in her bag, a person who would still be wandering free in Australia.

    If it’s possible to do so without unduly stressing the already severely put-upon Corby family, an investigation of these matters would be welcome. If the woman is, by such an investigation, shown to be guilty, then so be it, she’s served her time and now deserves a bit of peace and quiet. If she was always innocent, it would undoubtedly be the most egregious misjudgement by the Australian majority of a supposed criminal since Lindy Chamberlain, and we all know how that one turned out. Corby would then, I suggest, deserve an apology from those who have been so willing to dismiss her denials, and perhaps some financial compensation for having spent one-third of her 39 years in unwarranted, and highly uncomfortable, detention.

  36. Tanya P

    Yes Florence, what the media is doing is cruel.
    She was again the subject of a piece to air last night on commercial TV. The media have been embarrassed since her return as they continue to give extended attention to this story.

    Why do they do that? Putting on a media-thinking hat:
    ‘We, the mainstream media as a collective, provide an outlet for and seek to validate the cruelty inherent in the human condition. Within our organisational structure there is no-one in a position of power who has the intelligence to understand that cruelty has no place in a modern society.’

    Schapelle has been through the mill and managed to come out the other side with the help of family and friends. But that’s not good enough for the hounding media who will likely continue to try and trip her up. The unconscious inhumanity of the media is their weakness and spells their demise in time.

    As far as truth goes, we all know how much Lindy and Michael Chamberlain were helped by truth after the media got involved. Really, who would trust the media with anything?

  37. Florence nee Fedup

    If Corby did tell the truth as many are asking, how could being pursued by the media bring this about. II suspect if there was another story to e

    Always the chance she has been telling the truth.

  38. paulwalter

    It doesn’t matter if she told the truth or not. She has done enough hard time to sink a battleship. The media behaviour was macabre and vicious pack behaviour and when it became that it became about something else than Corby.

    Civilisation?

    What a joke,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page