Facing tragic loss, and a media beat-up

I have to agree with Jason’s view that the demands for an inquiry, or accusations residents are “angry” at the fire-fighters, are largely a media construction. ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has already directed some of the blame to the questions of visiting journalists – saying the line they’re running is right out of touch with the reality of reaction in streets and shopping centres. Negative spin, it seems is inevitable. Jason has pointed out the Sydney Morning Herald as an offender, but I am afraid I will have to add one of my beloved media outlets – the ABC.

Not only did they jump straight onto Wilson Tuckey’s comments about lack of management of fuel-load in national parks as an attack by a Federal Liberal Minister against a Territory Labour Government, they showed they only two clips I’ve seen of people questioning emergency services performance: a local ABC talkback radio clip when a woman talks of confused signals on local radio as to what residents should do; and a man describing how he waited over an hour for assistance from fire trucks before abandoning his parent’s house. The talkback sound-bight was repeated on the 7.30 Report. Frankly, this is going out of your way to look for bad news – and with the Tuckey focus to aid the politicisation of tragedy.

The extraordinary lack of sympathy in much SMH coverage is also disheartening. They have managed several “Canberra complains” stories like this, this and this. They are already reporting possible “class actions”, while all their “human interest” stories about the tragedy faced by real people appear to have been picked up from The Age.

Frankly, the thing to keep in mind, as The Age has done a better job of doing, is the human dimension. Michelle Grattan has an impressive piece, and The Age also very sensibly sent a number of its journalists or photographers with family in Canberra back home to cover the story, including Paul Harris and Dan Silkstone (Dan’s full article is not available online for free, but a somewhat trimmed version was put up in the SMH online here). I highly recommend these stories of ordinary people facing the unimaginable and of the impact upon what is, essentially, a country town.

I only wish a few other media outlets had taken the same approach. For a balanced view on the cause of the fires and the challenge of rebuilding, see local journalist, Crispin Hull (again, unsurprisingly, in The Age).

I am keenly aware though that in this posting I too run the risk of simply participating in a discussion of “the story” and how it has been covered, rather than in any way giving a space for the stories of real people. It's something I'll bear in mind if I write more on this subject.

Thoughts? Post them here.