Joe Korp is dead.

[catsidhe]

Parental Advisory: this post contains strong language and ideas which may offend.



Well, Joe Korp is dead. I hope the media is proud of killing him.

Guilty or innocent are utterly irrelevant concepts here. He was hounded unto death for the sake of a sexier news bulletin.

I can't remember a stretch of three days without recent footage of Korp, or his house, or Korp in his house. This includes the last two days.

Yesterday, the day of Maria Korp's funeral, Joe stayed away, for the professed reason that his presence would denigrate from the solemnity of the event. This was undoubtedly true. Certain court orders preventing him from contact with his son and step-daughter may also have played their parts, but that could have been arranged around if desired. Joe was praised for his consideration and restraint.

Did it do him any good? Well, no. Alongside the footage of the public part of the funeral, on every channel including the ABC, was footage of Joe wandering around his empty house. Of him drawing the curtains on his own small memorial and prayer (with accusing tones from the voice-over: how dare he attempt a private moment?!). Of him wandering the garden, and dissappearing into the shed.

Well, we know now what he went in there for, don't we.

Do you feel any better for having watched the last moments of a suicide?
Does it make it any better that the fact that you did watch was almost certainly one of the reasons why he did it?

And tonight, on every channel, after a clip sequence of Joe around and about, there was Joe's last public appearance: in a body bag, on a trolley.

That strikes me as a little ghoulish. No. Strike that. That is COMPLETELY FUCKING OBSCENE!

This isn't fucking hard, you scum-feeding parasitic vultures who pretend to the status of decent human beings, and have failed dismally. All you needed to say was "out of respect for the family, Joe Korp did not attend Maria's funeral. He held his own memorial service last week."
You did not need to camp on his fucking doorstep for months.
You did not need to follow his every move for months.
You did not need to show him on the news every fucking night whenever anyone says anything. And even if there was some pressing reason why you did, which there wasn't, what is wrong with showing just the one or two stock shots, like everyone has been doing for Steve Vizard? Why do you need new footage of him every fucking day?

You motherfucking vultures killed him.

It might have been interesting to have found out from a court of law whether he was, you know, possibly innocent or anything. But you guys moved some more papers, and got some more eyeballs on the n o'clock news, so what do you care, right?

By the way, what's happening in Gaza right now? How about the foreign minister assassinated by a sniper yesterday? Have any more innocent chemists been falsly accused of being terrorists lately? What about the 2004 US election, have any reports of widespread and systematic fraud been released lately?

Isn't there something you fuckers SHOULD be telling us?

Fuck you. Fuck you all very much.

Comments

[enrobso.livejournal.com]

You forgot to mention the shocked coverage of vigilante vandal attacks on a house where it was suspected that Mr Baldy was staying, this after the local newspapers had jumped through hoops to track him down and "warn" the public that he was out there possibly living near their children's school.

And the Herald-Sun's ongoing campaign to prove that whatever Muslim leaders say, they just haven't quite done enough to condemn terrorism. It's at the point where they could present John Howard with the severed head of Osama Bin Laden on a silver platter, Salome style, and the Herald-Sun would still be saying they weren't serious about it because they'd let his body get away.

[iosef.livejournal.com]

Or this one: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/ which may severly effect Australians as our courageous leadership has now stated that they "will not be eager to have anyone suspected of fighting against US forces returned to this country" as reported last night.

[mikeybidness.livejournal.com]

You motherfucking vultures killed him.

Uh, no, I think overwhelming guilt over plotting the murder of his wife killed him.

It strikes me that there are much worthier figures for your scorn or your praise.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

Uh, no, I think overwhelming guilt over plotting the murder of his wife killed him.
It hadn't up till now. That doesn't mean that it wasn't a factor as well. The simple fact is that we don't know, despite the pervasive and massively unnecessary coverage of these events, the cameras still can't tell us what went on in his mind. But whether you think he was guilty or not, and I personally think that he was not innocent, that is simply not the point. Wouldn't you have liked to have seen it proved? Won't, can't, happen now. He deserved a fair trial, he did not deserve the trial-by-media, which overwhelmingly found him guilty, and punished him by never leaving him alone, ever. Even his attempts to privately mourn his wife, and I have no reason to think that feigned, were dismissed by the vultures who were camped on his doorstep.

Guilty or innocent, wracked with guilt or tormented by unjust accusations, the coverage of his accusations and trial were completely unnessecary, and the pressure they put on him and his family were undoubtedly a large factor in his decision to orphan his son. They did not need to camp on his doorstep and interrogate everyone who tried to enter or leave. They did not need to have footage of him alone while his wife was buried. They did not need to show his body being carried out, and yet they did. That is ghoulish, and frankly, one of the biggest problems with the media: the obsessive need to get more and more on the current sexy stories, while leaving no time for anything else. The other stories I mentioned are important, internationally affecting events, yet have recieved either cursory or no coverage at all.

If the purpose of news is to inform, then inform, goddammit. Don't waste time on the beat-ups, however sexy they might be. If you are going to ignore important stories to make more time for fluffy and irrelevant filler (and honestly, how important was the Korp story? There were several other murders reported, last week alone, and this was a crime of passion -- he was unlikely to ever come and try to kill you.) If you are going to give beat-up bullshit priority over the important stuff, then stop calling yourself news, and join arms with Entertainment Tonight.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

If the purpose of news is to inform, then inform, goddammit.

The purpose of the media is to manipulate public opinion. Manipulation is easier the more sensational the story.

It's radically becoming the purpose of select online sources to actually engage in information.

[catsidhe.livejournal.com]

The purpose of the media is to manipulate public opinion.
Well spotted. Now, you know that, and I know that, and those who are informed in media theory know that, but that is a vanishingly small number of people.

In the meantime, this sort of tripe is presented, and labelled as 'News', over and over again, and most people's understanding of the word 'news' is that it means something like "relevant information on current events".

Well, it isn't news, in the popularly understood sense of the word. So, either stop calling it 'news' and start calling it 'all the data we think it is fit for you to hear', or put up a disclaimer something like:

Channel 17 Nightly News^*

* Note: 'News' is used under the technical definition of art, signifying a context-free agglomeration of facts and speculations, heavily influenced by editorial policy (which is determined by the owner or general manager of the station), and carefully edited to be as confusing and ephemeral as possible. No responsibility will be taken for opinions formed under the influence of this presentation.