Fleet Street comes to Oz: Media & Schapelle Corby

Keeping with the hysterical media-fed reaction to the Schapelle Corby being jailed for 20 years in a Bali prison...

Anyone would think the infamous Fleet Street editors had moved to Australia to help with the media feeding frenzy and come up with tabloid headlines following the Schapelle Corby verdict.  Rupert Murdochs' News Limited tabloids have been particularly sensationalist.  Here are some of the headlines from The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Herald Sun and Sunday Herald Sun since Saturday:

"INSIDE CORBY'S NIGHTMARE" ... "Day of outrage to show our disgust" ... "Hellhole she'll call home for 20 years" ... "NATION'S FURY" ... "20 years in hell and prosecutors still demand life" ... "Nation's fury at sentence" ... "ALONE AND AFRAID" ... "Family fears suicide" ... "Let's hurt Bali in the pocket" ... "Indonesia must look at grotesque anomolies" ... "A NATION REVOLTS" ... "Fury erupts at Corby jail term" ... "From support to damnation" ... "Horrors await in jail hellhole" ... "Corby's ex-lover backs trade ban" ... "Australia is crying now" ... "Share of hell in grotty cell" ... "Embassy phones run hot with hate" ... 'DAYS OF HATE" ... "Cellmates 'are giving her hell'" ... "National donations backlash"

Over the top headlines like that might sell papers, but they are also proving to be headlines have the capacity to incite readers and fuel something much bigger – like demonstrations, retribution and hatred towards Indonesia.

Now what does that achieve?  An intelligent answer was forthcoming from the guys at Crikey (sub req):

"(The media reaction) achieves only two things: more circulation for newpapers and the end of a workable Australian relationship with Indonesia (and possibly other Asian countries)."

Agreed.  Hysterical headlines and stories like these have nothing to do with press freedom or editorial independence, and it is time draw your weapons people.

Comments

[Susan]

here here or hear hear?

[Sarah]

That was really insensitive of you. You obviously haven't been through what she and her family have been through. I was digusted to read what you had said!

[sharp eye]

True, they've been experiencing the most difficult time of their life and in this regard I do feel for them, but don't forget Schapelle was convicted because she could not provide convincing evidence that she did not do it. It's time to let logic, not frenziness, reign.

[Marie]

You voiced my sentiments so eloquently!

As for Ms Corby and the whole feeding frenzy around her - well, this is what you get when you employ PR people back in Australia to go into bat for you.

I think it was "The Age" that had a flash report from a journalist based in Indonesia. He said that when they first heard about the case it was just another "dumb" Aussie getting mixed up in drugs. It turned out that she was good talent (young, articulate, marketable) and claiming to be innocent, so they ran with the story. Along came 26/12/2004 and the media dropped her coverage as Tsunami reports dominated. However, gradually, thanks to clever PR, she began to make her way back into the pages of Australian news.

I have paid an interest in this story and I am not too sure how anyone can have a definite opinion about her guilt or lack there of. The fact is that she was found in possession of a stack of dope. The only real question is was it put there by someone else? There does not seem to be anything other than circumstantial speculation and innuendo that it could have been.

The battle was fought on an emotional level back in Oz, just look at the reports coming out of there. It trades on Australia's deepest fears that all Asian courts (and their justice system for that matter) are kangaroo courts. It is life imitating art (a la Bangkok Hilton).

It is not good to hear Australians saying that they are not going to support Indonesia any more, saying that they regretted donating to Tsunami relief efforts, they will boycott Bali. Way to go Aussies, can we be any more narrow minded sometimes?

Nothing like confusing the issues.

If she is innocent then I hope that she can find evidence to prove it (not supposition and speculation and fairytales). Otherwise, I hope she uses her time to think about respecting the laws of the country she was entering.