Bloody Media!!!!!

[old man emu]

The sad news today was that an 18 year-old young woman who had been missing in bushland southwest of Sydney was found today, deceased. 

 

Police participated in a meeting with members of the Press. It appears that all the Press could focus on, and seek to blame Police for, was a report that a message had been passed to her parents that she had been found alive. However, within eight minutes that error had been corrected and the parents given the sad news. 

 

The members of the Press, who struck me as being young, posed questions that seemed to be aimed at making the police look incompetent. The senior officer who was speaking to them obviously did not have every minute fact, since the deceased had been found in wild country. I know that country as it was part of my patrol when I was a policeman. It is what some call 'tiger country'. Dense bush, steep cliffs. If any of you has flown west of Camden, or come in on the Bindook locator, you will know how bad the country is.

 

Searchers, who were SES, Police, Army and volunteers were using handheld radios for communication. Ther would have been no 'line of sight' from down in that steep country to the Command centre above. Mobile phones would have been useless. Nevertheless, these budding journalists, none of whom were likely to have any knowledge of the terrrain searchers were working in, kept plugging away with a line of quesioning that seemed to have only one object - to make out that police incompetence had cause undue distress to the parents.

 

This would have been held in the afternoon since the deceased was located about 11.30am. The Police officer tried to give as much information as was available, but I doubt if by that time he had to details that the Press might have been seeking. The deceased is in such an inaccessible location that recovering her might recuire her to be carried out as an air lift does not seem safe.

I noticed that the evening news broadcasts concentrated on that incorrect information.

 

Here is the report of the meeting.

 

[facthunter]

They just want a headline. A lot of them are rude and disgraceful.. Nev

[old man emu]

13 minutes ago, facthunter said:

They just want a headline. A lot of them are rude and disgraceful.. Nev

Yeah. Not a word of praise for the people who risked injury to carry out the seach, and the effort needed to retrieve the body. I thought the the Police officer controlled his emothions pretty well. He seemed to be empathetic to the fact that the woman had died, and how the parents felt. But he really showed self-control when these hacks kept pushing the mistaken message line. You have to remember also that he wasn't at the command centre, so he was dealing with relayed information and most likely had never been in the area himself.

 

I'm not just sticking up for him because I remember working with him when he was a fresh-faced Constable. I lost track of him thirty-odd years ago. 

[facthunter]

I fully understand all that.  He did well. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Sadly, this is as much as a reflection of society as it is of the media. If society didn't watch it, the media wouldn't produce it. 

 

Of course, if that is all the media publishes, it leaves people with only a choice not to watch and do something else.. and as creatures of comfort or convenience, people will probably take the idle path. 

[Marty_d]

Just to play devil's advocate here, telling a family that their child is alive when they weren't is a pretty major stuff-up.

It would have been devastating for the family to feel that overwhelming relief that she was alive, only to then be crushed. As a parent I can't imagine it.

 

[old man emu]

9 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

Just to play devil's advocate here

While I agree with your sentiment, what I was disgusted with was the emphasis which was placed on getting a sensational headline. You can hear that emphasis in the repeating of the question. What none of these reporters considered when seeking information was that the Deputy Commissioner they were speaking to would have only scant information passsed on in a short briefing from the command centre. Also, since the death was a matter for a Coronial Inquest, he couldn't just blurt out unconfirmed information. He did he best to be open about what he could say, but the answers to many questions were sub judice, meaning that saying anything likely to be wrong would be contempt of the Court.

 

 You can hear that emphasis in the repeating of the question.  For example, possible cause of death. The deceased lay in inaccessible country. I doubt that a doctor had attended to formally declare the person deceased. which is the first step in a Coronial Inquiry. A post mortem had no been carried out. Yet these reporters wanted to know the ins and outs of a duck's rs, such as time of death. Information about all these things has to be collected, documented and placed before a Coroner who will decide, based on the evidence produced, 

1. The identity of the deceased.

2. Time of death (if it can be established).

3. Place of death (if a fixed place or general locality can be determined).

4. Cause of death (results of post mortem).

5. If any criminal act was involved in the death.

 

No doubt the Press will howl for an examination of the conduct of the search. It will be looking for ammunition to fire at the responding agencies. Don't expect the Coronial Inquest to be completed for at least six months. That's a pretty usual time for one of these to go through the system.

[facthunter]

It was a Marathon search effort for a lot of people in tough inaccessible  country with comm difficulties. An unfortunate Mistake is easily possible. In that sort of terrain locating her is a triumph.. Nev 

[old man emu]

There's a De Haviland Dragon Rapide that went down in WWII  still undiscovered out there. Just think of the Southern Cloud as another example of 'lost in the bush'.

[nomadpete]

I totally agree with all the above re: search efforts, discovery and legalities.

 

However, I cannot understand anyone in an official capacity making a public announcement without being very sure of what they are saying. That was not (in my opinion) acceptable.

 

Whover contacted the parents with such incorrect, unverified information, has made a terribly thoughtless action.

[rgmwa]

4 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Just to play devil's advocate here, telling a family that their child is alive when they weren't is a pretty major stuff-up.

It would have been devastating for the family to feel that overwhelming relief that she was alive, only to then be crushed. As a parent I can't imagine it.

 

I agree as a parent it would be devastating to have your hopes raised but then dashed, but it's hard to be overly critical if the searchers were doing their best to keep the parents informed in real time. Also, we don't necessarily know exactly what they were told. It could have been anything from, `She's alive' or `We've found her, haven't been able to get to her yet but we think she may be alive'. Big difference, but the media would just focus on them being initially told she was alive and then criticise the mistake.