Media

Three wise men, the Sydney Siege and the media delight

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We all feel dreadfully for the victims, the hostages and the families of those at the Sydney Siege, however Sydney bureau chief Ross Jones was also sickened by the ghoulish media feeding frenzy.

A PRIEST, A RABBI AND AN IMAM walk into Martin Place.

Three wise men.

Unless they’d been praying for only two deaths, that is a joke.

Can you imagine the discussion? Jesus, said the priest, if they’re going I’m going. The imam, or in these days the iMam, said social media rules, so I’d better go. The rabbi struggles for any reason except Martin Place is almost the Eastern Suburbs.

Useless as tits on a bull all of them.

Years ago, when anthrax was the supposed terrorist weapon of choice – despite it being incredibly difficult and expensive to render useful as a weapon – I was in a Chinese restaurant in Bermagui on the NSW South Coast. In the magazine rack was the local paper. I wish I’d kept it, but the headline read something like Anthrax Threat In Bermagui!

Everybody wants to be part of the drama.

When it came to Martin Place, the MSM reacted like a horde of German dive bombers were just off Dover.

Scramble Chaps!

Sure, the fruitloop picked a café directly opposite the Channel Seven newsroom for maximum media impact and the first Ch7 images of those poor girls holding an iSlam teatowel against the window made you feel like going down there with an AR-15, but really?

Top-rating ABC drivetime host Richard Glover was dragged from his summer holiday to host an all-day marathon interviewing people who might have eaten in Lakemba once and so knew terrorism inside out. 

Morning radio bully Ray Hadley forced to do an all-dayer on 2GB interviewing the few Muslims with a Facebook page Glover hadn’t already got to.

And how many terrorism experts can there be? It would be a safer world if their opinions were more widely disseminated.

The #Sydneysiege was deluged by Americans who love this stuff.

There were two main views:

  • I’m praying for them, and;
  • If the hostages were armed it would never have happened.

These people are our allies.

The mainstream media spent half their time patting themselves on their backs for being so responsible, by not tweeting the arsehole’s demands, or running the Youtube and Facebook demands of whatever his name was.

"Police have asked us not to say and we respect that."

Over and over and over again.

The clear implication being — we know and you don’t and we have Morals. Then they all just sat outside, waiting for the moment, not wanting to be upstaged by every other Sydney TV and radio station who were also just outside, waiting for the moment.

Lucky the cricket wasn’t on.

Ghouls, all of them.

Don’t get me started on the Disgusting Daily Telegraph.

The Lindt window image was chilling and stirred all of us. We all feel dreadfully for the victims, the hostages and their families. It could have been any of us queuing for our coffee that day.

For me, I was sickened by the media delight.

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