It’s funny how quickly we forget.
It was only five weeks ago that Barnaby Joyce resigned after being brought down in another hysterical, media pile on and another round of totally out of proportion, confected outrage and a beat up not dissimilar to that that we’ve seen in recent days over the cricket tamper-gate, shock horror, affair.
And all because of a mid life crisis doing what millions of others from royalty down through politics, business and ordinary people from the suburbs have done when he ran off with a staffer and got her pregnant.
No sense of proportion or perspective.
Watching these journo’s talking in deep sonorous and somber tones to camera on the nightly news, about the cricketers as if the Pope or the Queen had died, I’m sure the bile in the back of the throat of many Australians is backing up.
Again no sense of proportion or perspective.
Analysis aside, which was more over the top and outrageous? The events themselves or the hyteria and slobbering, salivating media’s contrived and confected tabloid reaction to them?
In both cases, Joyce and “tamper-gate”, the media in pursuit of new angles and opinions for tomorrow’s headline, to a large extent facilitated and were midwives to both tragedies.
This was after all, just a cricket match. The Joyce affair was after all, just that. An affair, for Christ sake.
But hey, what the hell who cares. Milk it till it crashes and burns. Ride that horse till it collapses, hopefully in front of the grandstand and then express dismay as they catch the human tragedy, the teary eye and the smoking ruins of the car crash presser for the nightly news.
From beginning to end the media create, curate, and control the events. The “story” is king.
In the meantime the media caravan will pack up and move to their next pile on and pack attack in coming weeks.